Dimitri's Side: Frost Bite
by xoxAdRiAnIvAsHkOv83xox
Summary: This is Frost Bite from Dimitri's POV. It's the sequal to Dimitri's Side. R
1. Chapter 1

**Heyy everyone! I know that I had said I would have this posted within a couple of days from when I posted the final chapter of Dimitri's Side, but I got busy with writing an essay on an entire decade so I had to figure out how to put everything that happened in that decade together and I had to write an essay for an honors English class that I really want to get into so sorry. Oh and I should be studying for my science state test that I have tomorrow morning, but I'm writing for you guys instead, so you're welcome lol. You know what to do…REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!;-]**

I was waiting for Rose to get here, we were taking a trip to see another guardian—Arthur Schoenberg—for a test that all senior novices take. She was already late for the time I had told her to meet me by, but luckily I had expected this to happen and told her to meet me twenty minutes before the actually needed to be here because this was a test that she definitely could not be late for. She ended up getting here right on time; I wasn't going to let her know that though. So as she got to me I let a disapproving look settle across my face.

"I know, I know. Sorry I'm late." She said, noticing the look I was giving her.

I could tell that she had really rushed this morning, even though she know that this is the most important test—aside from trials at the end of the year—that she will ever take. Her hair was pulled back into a loose, messy ponytail and she had on a pair of ripped jeans and a hoody that was a little too big on her. She was beautiful.

"Who else is going?" She asked then.

"Just you and me." I shrugged nonchalantly, acting as if it was no big deal. When the truth was I was so happy that I was going to get to spend the next five hours in the Honda Pilot we were taking alone with her.

"How far away is it?" Rose asked.

"Five hours." Five great hours, it'd be nice if it was you know, five days maybe?

"Oh." Was all that she said.

We got into the car then and started out of the Academy. After we had been driving for a little while, I decided we needed some music to listen to. I turned on the radio and found a station that played some older songs, Prince was on now. I knew Rose would hate it, she didn't really notice it at first, but I knew she would eventually.

"Don't they usually come to the Academy? I mean I'm all for the field trip, but why are we going to them?" Rose asked me.

"Actually you're going to a him, not a them." I said. "Since this is a special case and he's doing us a favor, we're the ones making the trip."

"Who is he?" She asked. Oh her face is going to be priceless right here.

"Arthur Schoenberg." I said, and I was right, she looked at me like I was trying to kill her or something.

"What." She squeaked.

Arthur was a very well known guardian in our world so I could understand why this would be nerve wracking for her, but Rose can handle it. If other people could then she would have absolutely no problem at all; she's amazing, trust me.

"Wasn't…wasn't there anyone else available." She sounded so much like a little girl the way she said that, it took everything I had to keep the smile off of my face.

"You'll be fine. Besides, if Art approves of you, that's a great recommendation to have on your record." I told her honestly.

I could tell that my saying that didn't help much. She didn't get nervous very often, but I knew she was now. She would be able to do fine. I honestly think she could take on almost anything, one guardian wasn't going to change that. I figured she was probably worried more about things she had done before that she really shouldn't have…like running away with a Moroi princess.

"You'll be fine. The good in your record outweighs the bad."

"Thanks coach." She said teasingly.

"I'm here to help." I said lightly.

We settled into a comfortable silence then; it was short lived though.

"You know what would really help?" Rose asked.

"Hmm?"

"If you turned off this crap music and put on something that came out after the Berlin Wall went down." Ahhh so she had finally noticed my choice in music.

"Your worst class is history, yet somehow, you know everything about Eastern Europe." I said, laughing a little bit.

"Hey, I gotta have material for my jokes, Comrade." She said.

I decided to listen to her and switch the station. I changed it to country though, hey, she never said what to change it too. And this made it even better; 'Walk the Line' by Johnny Cash was playing. I personally love the song, but I had no doubt in my mind that she would hate it.

"Hey!" She exclaimed. "This isn't exactly what I had in mind." You have no idea how hard it was not to laugh then.

"Pick. It's this one or the other." I told her. I was okay with whichever.

"Go back to the 1980's stuff." She said with a sight. Ha.

We drove in silence for a while after that. It was kind of nice too. Rose and I didn't have to talk when we were around eachother, silence worked just as well. We just had that type of connection. But, since Rose was the other person in the car, the silence couldn't last forever. Actually it did kind of surprise me how long she had stayed silent though; it had been almost two and a half hours. I know, it shocked me too.

"Dimitri, I'm so hungry. Can we please stop and get something to eat." It was daytime for the humans so there were obviously places open and I was hungry too I had to admit, but we just couldn't be late meeting Art.

"No, it will make us late." I told her.

"Oh come on, I didn't get to eat anything this morning. And about being late, you've never seen me eat before; I'm like a fricken black hole. Put something edible near my mouth and it goes right in, like super fast. Trust me." I couldn't help but laugh at that and when I did her face lit up. And with that I cracked, I couldn't resist her anything when she was giving me the look she was now, it was just impossible.

"Fine, we can eat, but I better see that black whole of yours get put to use." Oh God that came out wrong. And apparently Rose realized how wrong that sounded too because her face turned bright red, or maybe she was just embarrassed about making herself sound like a pig. Nah, I'm gonna go with the first one, that sounds more like my Rose.

We drove for about another twenty minutes and then I saw a small diner on the side of the road and pulled in. By now I was happy I agreed that we could eat because I was starving.

When we got in a pretty blonde waitress who was probably about my age came over to take our orders. She turned to me first.

"What would ya like, darlin'" She asked with a slight southern drawl. That was something you didn't hear in Montana too often.

"I'll just have some coffee and a bagel." I told her.

"Are you sure that's all you want?" She asked.

"Yes."

"Okay." She said and then turned to Rose, pretty reluctantly I might add. "And what do you want?" She asked. She didn't say it rudely exactly, but she was being as nice as she had been to me either.

"I'll have some orange juice, toast, sausage and poached eggs." Rose told her.

"It'll be right." The waitress said, then after one last glance at me she went back to the kitchen area.

"Bitch." Rose said under her breath as the waitress left.

We got our food about fifteen minutes after that and then after a few more attempts by our waitress to flirt with me and some jealous glares from Rose, we finished eating and left.

"Wow, I wonder if that chick could have been anymore desperate. She doesn't even know and she was, like all over you." Rose said after she got into the car.

"Yeah, I guess." I said, not really caring about anyone's reaction to me other than Rose's.

"Oh come on. You can't tell me you didn't notice her flirting with you. It was soo obvious Stevie Wonder would have been able to see it."

"No, I noticed, I just didn't really care." I told her. I probably should have worded that a little differently, but whatever.

"Oh." Rose said, after a couple moments of silence. I looked over at her and she had a slight smile on her face. I love that smile.

The rest of the way to Arthur's house we only talked a little bit, but that was okay. As I said before, we didn't need words when we were with eachother. We just needed the other's presence.

**Mk I will do another UD within this week. And that is a promise that I will most definitely keep because I will not be nearly as busy this week as I was last week. You know what to do…REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!;-]**


	2. Chapter 2

**Heyy everyone! Thanks 4 all of the reviews on the last chapter. I luuuv reading them, so here is the next chapter. You know what to do…REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!;-]**

When we got to Arthur's house I noticed that it was eerily quiet. It was daytime, but still there should have been some guardians lurking around especially since they were expecting Rose and I. I got out of the car anyways and Rose followed. As we were walking up to the door I noticed that the sidewalk was really icy, but apparently Rose didn't because she started to slip. I automatically reached out to grab her and as I did I almost dropped her. An electric shock went up through my arm the moment I touched her, it wasn't a bad feeling though. The moment she got herself righted I let go of my grip on her arm.

"You okay?" I asked her.

"Yeah, haven't these people ever heard of ice?" She asked rhetorically as she glared down at the ice covered sidewalk.

Her mentioning that set an alarm off in my head. She was right; there shouldn't be ice on these sidewalks because the guardians here would have put salt on them to keep their Moroi from falling and getting hurt. Something was wrong here and I really did not want Rose to go into that house, not until I checked it out and could be sure that she would be safe.

"Rose," I said quietly. "Go wait in the car."

"But wh—" She started to say, but I interrupted her. I really did not need her arguing with me right now.

"Go."

She listened to me this time and went back to the car. I went into the house and couldn't believe what I saw. There were bodies everywhere; guardians and Moroi alike. There was also blood everywhere. What had happened here? More importantly, how had it happened? This house was surrounded by wards and Strigoi couldn't cross them or touch them or anything and nothing else could have done this, not with the amount of guardians there had been here.

I went back outside then, I needed to get my phone and call for some other guardians to get here, but when I got outside something else captured my attention, Rose wasn't in the car and that scared me shitless which was kind of stupid actually because it was daylight out. I didn't care though, that was just my automatic reaction to not seeing Rose where she should have been after also seeing what had happened inside that house.

I noticed footsteps in the snow then, they were leading around to the back of the house. I followed them and found Rose looking at a broken glass window and the horror scene that laid behind it. She had a horrified expression on her face and I couldn't blame her; she had never seen anything like this before—or at least I hope she hadn't—and she certainly wasn't expecting to see something like this today and neither was I.

"Why don't you ever listen?" I asked as I walked up to her. "You'd be dead if _they _were still here." That thought terrified me.

It took her a while, but finally she answered me.

"It's daytime. Bad things don't happen in the day." She whispered, sounding like a frightened little girl and right now, she was one. It killed me to see her this scared. It killed me that she had to see something like this, but I guess this is just something that guardians have to deal with. If she weren't to see it now she would have seen something like this eventually and at least right now I could be with her and hopefully that would make her feel better, safer.

I noticed then that she looked back at Arthur's lifeless body. I never thought that I would see the day when a Strigoi killed that man. I know that students back on campus thought that I was badass, but compared to this man, I was like a scared little puppy, not a little dainty Paris Hilton-esque puppy though, but nevertheless a puppy.

"Arthur Schoenberg." I said.

"He's dead. How can he be dead? How could a Strigoi kill Arthur Schoenberg?" Rose asked frantically, slightly hysterical.

I didn't answer her question though. Something else had caught my attention; she was holding a silver stake in her hand. I reached toward her and wrapped my hand around hers and the stake, she flinched at my touch.

"Where did you get this?" I asked as I removed my hand as well as the stake from hers.

"Outside. In the ground." She said. Holy shit, this must have broken the wards.

"It broke the ward." I told her.

"Strigoi can't touch staked." She told me, like I didn't already know that.

"A human might." I told her.

She looked me in the eyes. "Humans don't help Strigoi—" She cut herself off.

I could tell that she was thinking hard about what I just told her. Humans helping Strigoi probably had never occurred to her, but it does happed sometimes. It's just one of those things that they don't teach them in school. You have to learn that on your own, if and when the time comes.

"This changes everything, doesn't it?" She asked.

"Yeah, it does."

After that we went back to the car and I called for some more guardians to come in like I had planned on doing before Rose distracted me. Rose stayed in the car to wait for them to get here and I went back inside the house to look it over some more. It was going to be a few hours before everyone got here though so after I finished looking through the house I also went back to the car to wait with Rose.

**Mk guys ik this is short—I just learned I have to write 8 different poems for English ugh, I like reading poetry just not writing it evn tho I'm good at that—but I will try to update again in a few days. And for now you know what to do…REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!;-]**


	3. Chapter 3

**Heyy every1! I finished my poetry earlier than I expected and writing those poems put me in a writing mood, so you are getting this UD sooner than I had expected. You know what to do…REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!;-] Oh and another reason I am in a writing mood is because I had to write an essay for an honors English class I want to get into and not only did I get into the class, but I also had what the teacher said was the best/her favorite essay out of all of them! REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!**

Rose and I sat in silence as we waited for the guardians to arrive. I could tell that she was distraught over what she had seen here. She probably wanted to go find the first Strigoi/person who ticks her off and rip their head off. I could tell by the look in her eyes that she was steaming over this, but she was also sad, so was I, not only because I had been friends with Arthur, but also because well it's always sad when something happens so a Moroi or Dhampir whether you know them or not.

Finally everyone got to the house and we went back inside; Rose included. I don't think she would have come in if I hadn't told her to, hell I didn't really want her in there again either, but this was something that she needed to see the mechanics of; how it was done besides she was supposed to take that test today. This was a terrible way for it to be done, but it would show whether she knew what needed to be done or not.

"Oh, Arthur," Tamara, one of the guardians, said when we entered the living room where most of the dead bodies were. "Never thought I'd see this day. He was my mentor." She said, rising from the squat she had been in.

We had been examining everything for a few minutes when Rose just out of nowhere blurted out, "How could they do that? How could the kill _him_?" She was talking about Arthur.

"The same way they kill everyone else. He's mortal, just like the rest of us." Tamara answered, shrugging.

"Yeah, but he's…you know, Arthur Schoenberg." Rose said, clearly still shocked. If I hadn't seen things like this before, I would be too.

"You tell us, Rose. You've seen the house, tell us how they did it." I told her. I could tell that my telling her to do this made her nervous for a moment, but I could see things coming together in her mind.

"There were four points of entry, which means at least four Strigoi," She started. "There were seven Moroi and three guardians. To many kills, four Strigoi couldn't have taken down that many. Six probably could if they went for the guardians first and caught them by surprise. The family would have been too panicked to fight back." She finished; very good.

"And how did they catch the guardians by surprise?" I asked her knowing she could answer this easily.

"Because the wards were broken." She started after a moment of hesitation. "In a household without wards, there'd probably be a guardian walking the yard at night, but they wouldn't have done that here." She finished. I nodded to show my approval and decided it wasn't necessary to ask her the obvious follow up question, how did they break the wards? No one else found it necessary to ask either.

As we looked more throughout the house we found something nearly—not quite—as bad as the living room, but this was bad in a different way. On the mirror above the sink in the bathroom a message was written…in blood. It said: _Poor, poor Badicas. So few left. One royal family nearly gone, others to follow._ It was disgusting, especially considering the fact that although the Badicas were small there were other families who were smaller…like the Dragomirs. There were a couple hundred Badicas while Lissa was the sole Dragomir left. At least right now she is as protected as any Moroi can be at the Academy.

We left a little while after we found the mirror and it was pretty obvious that Rose was still pissed over what we found today, I was too, but I'm much better at hiding things like that than Rose. This was obvious when we got into the car and she just about ripped her sides door off as she slammed it shut.

"What's wrong?" I asked her, I know, idiotic question.

"Are you serious?" She practically screamed at me. Ow. "How can you ask that? You were there, you saw that." She exclaimed.

"I did, but I'm not taking it out on the car." I said calmly, hoping she would calm down too. She didn't.

"I hate them! I hate them all! I wish I'd been there, I would have ripped _their _throats out!" Oh, Rose, how naïve you can be sometimes. I did understand her though.

"You really think that's true?" I asked her, a little shocked at what she had said. "You think you could have done better than Art Schoenberg after seeing what the Strigoi did in there? After seeing what Natalie did to you?" I knew that would get her, Natalie would have killed her if I hadn't shown up at the prison at the school when I did. I didn't want to think about that though, she was alive and Natalie was dead, so it didn't matter. And I was right in my assumption that it would silence her and make her rethink her words.

"I'm sorry." She said after a couple minutes.

"It's okay. It's been a long day…for all of us." I told her.

After that we drove back to the Academy, we were silent almost the entire way which was slightly maddening and slightly relieving. I didn't want another outburst like before, but I would have liked to hear her voice I little more than I did especially since the trip was almost four hours long.

We got back to the Academy around midnight and the news of the massacre had already spread across campus; everyone was talking about. People kept asking me for details about it, but I was so tired that I didn't really talk to one person long enough to give up many details, I could tell that Rose was tired too. Damn, why did we have to go during the night? Well I guess with what we discovered, it was one of those the sooner the better situations.

I went to bed a few hours after we got back so I could get some sleep in before I was needed again. I was even thinking about canceling my afternoon practice with Rose. The moment my head hit my pillow I fell asleep. I dreamt of Rose, it had actually been a while since she visited me in my dreams, it was nice.

"Rose?" I asked, I could only see the back of her head.

"Hey, Dimitri." She said as she turned around.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, finally taking in our surroundings, we were in the woods surrounding the Academy.

"Waiting for you to get here, of course." She said like I should have known this. "You're late." She said.

"I'm sorry?" I said, but it was more like a question.

"It's fine, you're here now, that's all that matters." She said as she walked over and hugged me. Touching her was great. "Let's walk." She said. I still had no clue what the hell we were doing here.

We walked in silence for a few minutes before she spoke again.

"I'm so happy that you decided we could be together, even if it's a secret." Ahhh so that's what this was about. Us being together, a wish come true.

"Me, too." I said as I brought her to me and kissed her. We hadn't kissed or really touched outside of practice since the whole thing with Victor's lust spell and oh God I had forgotten how great feeling her lips on mine felt, how wonderful she tasted, just how amazing she was in general—okay I didn't forget that part. How could I? Her lips felt so soft against mine and there was a warmth spreading over my skin from touching her like this. It felt amazing, I never wanted this feeling to go away.

_Beep! Beep! Beep!_

I woke up.

"Damn." I muttered as I turned my alarm clock off. Time to get back to work; couldn't I have stayed with dream Roza a little bit longer. Sure real Rose is better because those interactions are in the real world, but I could never kiss the real live Rose. Ugh.

**Okay, it's not the longest chapter ever, but I think it will do especially since the weekend is coming up and I will probably do another UD on Sunday. Anywho I hope you liked this chapter…I thought the dream was really sweet and cute lol I hope you did too. You know what to do…REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!;-]**


	4. Chapter 4

**Heyy every1! I promised an update for today so here it is. You know what to do…REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!;-]**

Not much happened during the rest of the day. All I had to do was walk the edges of the campus and answer some questions about what happened at the Badicas house that some of the other guardians had, then I was free to do whatever—I canceled practice with Rose—which wasn't much. I caught up on some reading and eating and that's about it. Oh and I worked out for a while, I really would rather not have Rose kick my ass in practice. She isn't quite there yet, but I don't want to give her any advantages. **A/N I'm picturing this shirtless, how about you? Haha.** Then I went back to my room and slept some more, unfortunately I didn't dream at all so there was no Rose.

The next morning I had practice with Rose. When I was almost to the gym I got the shock of my life. Ladies and gentlemen Rose Hathaway, yes Rose was actually at the gym before I was. How did _this_ happen. Eh, whatever caused this, it was fine by me, it meant I had more time with Rose than usual. She was talking to another senior novice—Mason Ashford—but he left pretty much as soon as I came into view, then Rose walked into the gym with me. She was going to like what I had in store for her today.

"Sweet." Rose breathed as she walked in and saw the dummies lined up along the wall.

I had decided that she was ready to start learning how to stake a Strigoi. I had been debating whether to start teaching her or not for the last week or two and what happened at the Badica house pushed me over the edge. She needed to learn how to protect herself—and Moroi—and while fighting skills would work to fend one off—for a little while—it wouldn't kill one and she needed to know how to do that, but of course we had to go over the basics which Rose probably won't enjoy. Okay she definitely won't enjoy it…at all.

"Please tell me I get to learn to do that today." She said looking at the stake that I was tossing up and down in my hand.

"You'll be lucky if I let you hold it today." I said, still tossing the stake around, it wasn't a real stake, but that was irrelevant.

"You want me to tell you how they work and why I should always be cautious around them." She said after she set her bags and coat on the ground. I caught my stake in my hand and kept it there this time, did she really no me that well? Damn.

"Come on, you don't think I know how you work by now? We've been doing this for almost three months. You always make me talk safety and responsibility before I can do anything fun." She said. I guess my facial expression mirrored the shock I felt at her knowing my next step today.

"I see. Well, I guess you've got it all figured out. By all means, go on with the lesson. I'll just wait over here until you need me again." I said. She didn't believe what I said at first, but then, with a shrug, launched into the lesson.

"Silver always has powerful effects on any magical creature—it can help or hurt them if you put enough power into it. These stakes are really hard-core because it takes four different Moroi to make them…well except spirit. SO these things are supercharged and are about the only non-decapitating weapon that can do damage to a Strigoi, but to kill them, it has to be through the heart."

"Will they hurt you?" I asked when she paused for a moment.

"No," She said shaking her head. "I mean, well yeah, if you drive one through my heart it will, but it won't hurt me like it would a Moroi. Scratch one of them with this and it will hit them pretty hard, but not as hard as it'd hit a Strigoi. And they won't hurt humans, either." She said, wow she really knew her stuff; I guess that shouldn't have surprised me though. She knows a lot more than most people give her credit for, I had learned that when we first started training together.

She continued telling me about stakes until I stopped her with about ten minutes left in the session. I knew that she had expected me to stop her earlier—she kept glancing at the clock on the wall every few minutes while she spoke—but I didn't really want to leave much time left for her to possibly get to start staking the dummies. That would hopefully be for later. So I stopped her and asked a few questions that she would need to be able to answer to do this.

"Where are you going to put this?" I asked.

"In the heart. I already told you that like a hundred times, can I have it now?" She asked, slightly irritated. I smiled a little bit at that.

"Where's the heart?" She looked at me like I was joking and then dramatically pointed to the left side of the dummies chest that was in front of us. "That's not where the heart is." I told her.

"Sure it is. People put their hands over their hearts when they say the Pledge of Allegiance or sing the national anthem." She said, all I did was look at her. Shouldn't she have already learned that even though people put their hands there that isn't actually where your heart is? "Is it here?" She asked after a moment, pointing at the center of the dummies chest, there ya go Roza, but I wasn't going to give her that especially not when she asked me and didn't tell me.

"I don't know is it?" I asked her, deciding to play dumb, Rose looked like she wanted to hit me.

"That's what I'm asking you!" She yelled.

"You shouldn't have to ask me. Don't you have to take physiology?" I asked.

"Yeah, junior year. I was on 'vacation' remember? Can I please touch it now?" She asked pointing at the stake.

I put the stake out of her sight. "I want you to_ tell_ me where the heart is the next time we meet. Exactly where, and I want to know what's in the way of it too." I told her. Saying the earned me a glare, I tried not to laugh at it. It wasn't intimidating at all, although I'm sure she had planned it to be. Oh well. I love this girl, but she can't always get her way.

I went off to go eat breakfast then and to my misfortune, right as I sat down with my bagel and coffee Wes and Tom—two guardians I'm not very fond of—sat down next to me. They had been some of the people who had asked me about the massacre and I had already told them everything I knew so I had no clue what they would want now.

"So, you getting sick of Hathaway yet?" Wes asked me.

"Why are you two so obsessed with my training Rose?" I asked them, my annoyance was obvious in my voice.

"Well we both agreed that the only way would want to spend that much time with a bitch like her was if she giving us some, you know, _extra credit_." Tom said and I knew exactly what he meant by extra credit and it disgusted me, why would they even think like that. Okay now I sound like a hypocrite because they are both a year or two younger than me. "And we were just wondering what she is doing for you." Tom continued.

"All we are doing is training and if the two of you can't understand that, well then you desperately need some serious held." I snapped at them.

"Wow, Belikov, on the defensive much. Got something to hide?" Wes asked.

"I have absolutely nothing to hide. I just don't like you two talking about my student like that when you don't even know the first thing about her." I almost yelled. God what is it about Rose that can make me lose control like this? It wasn't a good thing right now, I needed my control at the moment, but they were just pissing me off so much and I hated hearing them talk about my Roza like that.

"Oh and you know so much about her? Okay, but since when do students let their teachers into their lives?" Tom asked, asshole.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked.

"Oh, nothing. I'm just saying, I mentor Meredith and she doesn't really let me know much about her, just that she can kick ass." Tom said. Poor, Meredith.

"Well that's good for you."

"So I'm just wondering why you apparently know so much about Rose."

"Maybe it's because I'm a more likeable mentor." I said and with that I left.

"Whatever, Dimitri." Tom called as I walked away.

Man I hate those guys and not only because they're dicks, but also because they are so spot on about Rose and I. Okay, not _spot _on—we weren't doing anything—but they thought I felt something more for her than a mentor should. And believe me I feel _way_ more for than any mentor should. I should never have even let myself start to feel like this in the first place, but I'm in love with her and as much as I know I should make myself forget these feelings, well I'm not sure if I can. Great. Well good thing Tasha was going to be getting her soon for Christmas because I really needed any distraction I could get and she would help with that.

**Mk I hope you likes that chapter. I love how I made Tom and Wes total assholes when I named them after two of my favorite football players lol. Oh, well. Oh and grr Tasha is coming lol. You know what to do…REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!;-]**


	5. Chapter 5

**Heyy! Ahhh school is finally about to come to an end for the year! I'm so happy and I don't have to go tomorrow :) I do have to go Friday unfortunately, oh well I'm getting out to go shopping right after I finish my exam. Okay now to the point I was getting at with this rambling lol. Once school is out I will be able to update more often :) Well you know what to do…REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!;-]**

After leaving Wes and Tom—asses—I had to go watch over a class. It was one of Rose's and unfortunately for her, her mom was going to be there speaking to the class along with a few other guardians. I wasn't sure what Rose's reaction would be—I'm leaning towards mouthing-off—but whatever it is that she does, I'm sure it will be interesting.

I was standing in the back of the classroom with the other school guardians when Rose came into the room…and saw her mom. It was only for a second, but I saw shock flash across her eyes when she first saw her mom, then she composed herself and sat down. I could guess what she was thinking—_What the hello? She can come to teach a class or whatever she is doing, but she can't see me or at least tell me that she is on campus? Bitch—_yeah, something along the lines of that had to have been running through her head as she walked to her seat in the middle of the class.

A few minutes later Stan—it's his class—introduced Janine and the other guardians to the class and then they told stories about experiences they have had with Strigoi. The entire class seemed pretty excited to be hearing these stories. I remember when I was in school, I would have found these exciting too, but now that I have taken part in fights like these I don't find it exciting so much as sad and a shame. These fights shouldn't need to take place, not when Strigoi could have been avoided from the start. They will learn this soon enough, while these stories make guardians seem tough, they wish that they didn't have to tell them, that they didn't happen.

After about twenty minutes Rose's mom—Janine—took the stage and told her story. It was about a time when she and a few other guardians were watching over a royal party, but some Strigoi managed to sneak in or hide out in there and make away with some of the Moroi. They ended up staging a rescue mission which was pretty much unheard of since that could get a lot more people killed than just letting the Strigoi go—which none of us want to do, but is sometimes necessary—and Janine actually killed a couple of the Strigoi herself. No matter what Rose had to admit that her mom was a badass. Ok well maybe not…

"So , Guardian Hathaway," Rose started after her mom called on her, "Why didn't you guys just secure the place?" Yupp, she definitely wasn't planning on admitting that her mom is a badass.

"What do you mean?" Janine asked.

"I don't know," Rose said shrugging. "It seems to me like you guys messed up. Why didn't you scope out the place to make sure it was clear of Strigoi in the first place? Seems like you could have saved yourself a lot of trouble." Oh Lord please help us now.

"If we hadn't gone through all that 'trouble' there'd be seven more Strigoi walking the world, and those other captured Moroi would be dead or turned by now." Janine replied after taking a minute to figure out how to respond to what Rose had just said.

"Yeah, yeah I get how you guys saved the day and all that, but I'm going on principles here. I mean, this is theories class right? So I just want to figure out what went wrong in the beginning." Rose said. Amazingly Janine still wore a calm expression on her face, Stan was glaring at Rose.

"It's not that simple, the venue had an extremely complex layout. We went through it initially and found nothing. It's believed that the Strigoi came in after the festivities had started—or that there might have been passages and hidden rooms we hadn't been aware of." Janine replied, the class was impressed by this, well except for Rose of course. Man can that girl hold a grudge.

"So, what you're saying is that you guys either failed to detect them during your first sweep, or they broke through the 'security', "The way she said security made it obvious that she was mocking her mother, "you set up during the party. Seems like someone messed up either way." I swear Rose has a good argument for everything. You could probably say that the sky is blue and if Rose didn't like you she could probably start an argument that it wasn't and sway what people thought.

"We did the best we could with an unusual situation," Janine said, obviously irritated now. "I can see how someone at you lever might not be able to grasp the intricacies of what I'm describing, but once you've actually learned to go beyond theory, you'll see how different it is when you're actually out there and lives are in your hands."_Ouch. _It didn't bother Rose though; she just grinned and went on.

"No doubt. Who am I to question you methods? I mean, whatever gets you the molnija marks right?" That was going too far, even for Rose.

"Miss Hathaway, please take your things and wait outside for the remainder of the class." Stan said, also realizing that things had gone way too far.

"Are you serious?" Rose asked, shocked. "Since when is there anything wrong with asking questions?"

"Your attitude is what's wrong. Go." Stan said pointing at the door.

I had seen Rose get kicked out of class plenty of times, but it was obvious that this time was different than the others. I wouldn't say she was ashamed, but it seemed like she was maybe a little embarrassed and it was obvious that she was extremely pissed off.

Janine answered a few more questions from the class and then let the other guardians take the stage back and went out into the hall, presumably to talk to Rose about what she did. Huh, poor Rose, or maybe I should feel sorry for Janine, I don't know. It wouldn't exactly be my wish to get into any arguments with any Hathaway.

I heard bits and pieces of their argument, but only enough to understand that when one of them yelled, the other yelled right back and Rose was the loudest of course because you know, Janine has self-control…all the time and Rose does too…once in a while. Oh, well.

Once the class ended I started to head back to my room and ran into none other than Tasha Ozera. I hadn't seen her in a while—I haven't even talked to her for a couple of weeks—so it was really nice to see her again. We had been friends for so long.

"Dimka!" She yelled as she neared me. "Long time no see…or talk. So let's talk, now."

"Okay, come on, let's go to my room. You're lucky I'm free right now." I told her lightly.

"Sounds good. And you would always make time for me, wouldn't you Dimka?" She asked, a little jokingly.

"Sure, Tasha."

"Oh, I knew it." She said smiling. We reached my room then and right once she got inside Tasha plopped down onto my bed.

God, the last woman who had been in my bed had been Rose on the night of the lust charm. Oh, man I could not be thinking about that right now. I had thought about confessing what happened to Tasha, but I never did. I could have, we had a good relationship like that, but I could never bring myself to tell anyone about that.

"You know, you'd think these beds would be a little more comfortable what with the fact that you guardians don't really get to sleep as much as the rest of us." Tasha commented.

"Yeah, you'd think, but hey that's what I get for being a school guardian." I said.

"Hmm, well maybe you should change that."

"And how would I do that?"

"Ohh, I don't know." The way she said that made it sound like she do know. I can only imagine what she has up her sleeve. "So, Christian, Lissa and I are going to go ice skating up at the old cabin in the woods later, you should come by. I'm so happy I finally get to meet Lissa, it's going to be great."

"I'm sure you are and I'd love to come by. What time are you going to go?"

"Oh around three. I don't want to keep the two of them out too late."

"Okay, yeah that will be fine. That's right after my afternoon practice with Rose ends." I said.

"Okay, sounds good and bring Rose too. I'd love to meet her."

"You better hope she likes you otherwise you won't, but okay I'll see."

"Okay, well now that I've invited you and we talked a little I have to go find Christian real quick. I'll see you later Dimka, bye."

"Bye, Tasha." I said as she went out my door.

I went to walk around the campus then with Yuri and then had to go get ready for my afternoon practice with Rose. I was hoping that she would be able to do some staking this time around. I got to the gym about ten minutes earlier than her so I set up the staking dummies again and the got changed into some black track pants and a grey t-shirt. As I came out of the men's locker room Rose entered the gym—she looked furious.

"There," She said after charging up to a dummy and hitting it's chest. "The heart is there, and the sternum and ribs are in the way. Can I have the stake now?" Not quite yet, Roza.

"And how do you get through the sternum and the ribs?" I asked her. Rose just sighed, well I would help her with this one.

I showed her how the maneuver the stake so that she would effortlessly be able to get to the heart. It took most of the practice for me to show her everything, but by the time I was finished there was still time left for her to try it. Let's see what you're made of, Roza.

When I handed her the practice stake the hesitated though. I never thought I would see the day that Rose Hathaway didn't take the chance to hit something, even if it was just a dummy.

"You're giving it to me?" She asked when I first handed her the stake.

"I can't believe you're holding back. I figured you would have taken it and run by now." I said, hiding a smile.

"Aren't you always teaching me to hold back?" She asked.

"Not on everything."

"But on _some _things." She said.

I could hear the double meaning in her voice. Yes there were definitely some specific things that she—both of us—needed to hold back on. I didn't want us to, but that didn't matter. We needed to. I also needed to not be thinking about that at the moment.

"Of course." I said, keeping my thoughts hidden. "It's like everything else. Balance. Know which things to run forward with—and know which to leave alone."

Our eyes met for a moment after I said that and it was like electricity. We had both been thinking about the same thing—_us—_but we both knew that we shouldn't have been thinking about it. It was so right when we didn't think about our other responsibilities, but when we did…well then it was so wrong. Why do things need to be so complicated sometimes?

Rose took the stake from me after we both were silent for a couple moments.

"What should I do first?" She asked me.

I told her then what to do and what not to do and then she tried it herself. She was pretty good at it which shouldn't have surprised me—she's good at everything. She was going to be a really great guardian someday soon, but I already knew that. I felt proud to be her mentor and the guy that she will guard next to, but at the same time I wish I wasn't Lissa's guardian because that was one of the things keeping Rose and I apart. It didn't matter though, Lissa is my charge and Rose's future charge and that is all that matters, not what Rose and I feel for eachother. It kills me to have to say that.

"Slide up though the ribs. It'll be easier since you're shorter than most of your attackers. Plus you can slide along the lower rib's cage." I explained to her after a few minutes.

We finished about fifteen minutes after that.

"Good, very good." I said as she gave me the practice stake back.

"Really?"

"You do it like you've been doing it for years."

My saying that made her smile that beautiful smile she had. I loved seeing it on her face, but then as we made it towards the door she glanced back at the dummies and that wonderful smile slipped into a scowl.

"Can I stake that one next time?" She asked, looking at a dummy with red curly hair that looked eerily like her mother.

"I don't think that'd be healthy." I said as I put my coat on.

"It'd be better than me actually doing it to her." She grumbled. It was true, but irrelevant. I think I'll take that dummy down before our next practice.

"Violence isn't the answer to your problems." I told her.

"She's the one with the problem. And I thought the whole point of my education was that violence is the answer."

"Only to those who bring it to you first. Your mother isn't assaulting you, you two are just too much alike, that's all." I knew she wasn't going to like that I said she was like her mom, but it's true.

"I'm not anything like her!" She said, she actually stopped walking next to me. "I mean… we kind of have the same eyes, but I'm a lot taller and my hair's completely different."

"I'm not talking about your appearances, and you know it." I said, slightly amused, but dead serious at the same time.

"You think I'm jealous?" She asked after a few minutes of silent walking.

"Are you? If so, what are you jealous of exactly?"

"I don't know." She said looking at me now. "Maybe I'm jealous of her reputation. Maybe I'm jealous because she's put more time into her reputation than into me. I don't know."

"You don't think what she did was great?"

"Yes. No. I don't know. It just sounded like such a…I don't know...like she was bragging. Like she did it for the glory, for the marks." I could see where Rose was coming from, but trust me Janine didn't do all the things she did for the glory; she did it because it was the right thing to do. No guardian does what we do for the glory and if any of us do, then that person has some serious problems.

"You think facing down Strigoi is worth a few marks? I thought you'd learned something from the Badica house."

"That's not what I—"

"Come on." I said cutting her off.

"What?"

"I want to show you something."

"What is it?" She asked.

"That not all marks are badges of honor."

If anyone was a good example of this Tasha was. And Rose was going to meet her and learn this for herself.

**I hope you liked this chapter. You know what to do…REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!;-]**


	6. Chapter 6

**Reviews are nice ;-]**

Rose and I didn't talk for most of the way to meet Tasha. She was probably trying to figure out what I meant about the marks, but when the cabin came into view she finally spoke.

"What is that?" She asked, looking at the cabin.

"Old watch-post." I told her. "Guardians used to live on the edge of campus and keep watch for Strigoi."

"Why don't they anymore?"

"We don't have enough guardians to staff it. Besides, Moroi have warded the campus with enough protective magic that most don't think it's necessary to have actual people on guard." I explained.

As we got even closer to the cabin I could hear the voices of Lissa, Tasha and Christian, but wasn't able to see them yet. Then we rounded the corner and saw everyone on the lake skating. Lissa was the first one to notice us.

"Rose!" She yelled excitedly.

"Thanks for inviting me to the party." Rose said, looking a little shocked.

"I figured you were busy and this is a secret anyway. We aren't supposed to be here." Lissa said, explaining herself to Rose.

"You bringing party crashers, Dimka?" Tasha asked jokingly as she and Christina skated up next to Lissa on the edge of the pond.

"It's impossible to keep Rose away from places she shouldn't be. She always finds them eventually." I said, laughing a little. Tasha smiled too and then she came over to Rose.

"Tasha Ozera." She said extending her hand towards Rose. "I've heard a lot about you, Rose." That made Rose instantly turn towards Christian with a glare. Little did she know that I have also told Tasha some things about her. "Don't worry, it was all good." Tasha said when she noticed Rose's expression.

"No it wasn't." Christian said.

"Honestly, I don't know where he gets such horrible social skills. He didn't learn them from me." Tasha said, shaking her head at her nephew.

"What are you guys doing out here?" Rose asked, changing the subject.

"I wanted to spend some time with these two, but I don't really like hanging around the school itself. They aren't always hospitable…" Tasha trailed off.

"Because…because of what happened…" Rose stammered, not quite knowing how to word her response.

"That's the way it is." Tasha said shrugging. I swear nothing could ever get that woman down. "But let's not stand out her, not when we can build a fire inside.

With that we all went into the cabin and I made a fire for us. And unsurprisingly Tasha pulled out a bag of marshmallows. If you ever wanted something sweet to eat you could count on Tasha to have something for you.

Once we got everything going Tasha and I started talking like we used to do all the time. It was nice, we sort of ended up leaving everyone else out of the conversation, but hey we hadn't talked to eachother in person in a long time. It ended up not mattering anyway since Rose was there. After a while she just couldn't keep herself out of the conversation any longer. That was okay though.

"So, are you going on the sky trip?" Rose asked Tasha.

Tasha nodded. "I haven't been skiing in ages. No time. Been saving all of my vacation for this."

"Vacation? Do you have…a job?" Rose asked, obviously confused.

"Sadly, yes. I teach martial arts classes."

Rose stared at her after she said that. It was pretty astonishing that a Moroi would have a job let alone teach martial arts. Hey no one ever said that Tasha was normal though.

"What do you think Rose?" Christian asked. "Think you could take her?"

"Hard to say." Rose said looking at Tasha. She was obviously just trying not to be cocky or anything because sure Tasha is tough, but Rose could take her with one hand tied behind her back and her left eye closed.

"You're being modest. I've seen what you guys can do. This is just a hobby I picked up." Tasha said. Okay she was being modest too.

"Now you're being modest. You could teach half the classes around here." Sure the novices would be stronger than her, not all of them though. I said that she wouldn't be able to take Rose, but she is stronger than most of the other novices around here. Besides its not all about power, it's about knowing how to fight correctly and Tasha definitely knows how to do that.

"Not likely. It'd be pretty embarrassing to be beaten up by a bunch of teenagers."

" I don't think that'd happen. I seem to remember you doing some damage to Neil Szelsky." Okay so it wasn't physical damage, but whatever.

"Throwing my drink in his face wasn't actually damage—unless you consider the damage it did to his suit. And we all know how he is about his clothes." We both laughed at that.

"Did you start learning to fight before or after that happened to your face?" Rose asked then. It was such a Rose thing to say, luckily questions like that never bothered Tasha.

"Rose!" Lissa hissed.

"After." Tasha replied. " How much do you know?"

"The basics."

"I knew…I knew what Lucas and Moira had become, but that still didn't prepare me. Mentally, physically, or emotionally. I think if I had to like through it again, I still wouldn't be ready. But after that night, I looked at myself—figuratively—and realized how defenseless I was. I'd spent my whole life expecting guardians to protect me and take care of me. And that's not to say the guardians aren't capable; like I said you could probably take me in a fight, but they—Lucas and Moira—cut down out two guardians before we realized what had happened. I stalled them from taking Christian—just barely. If the others hadn't shown up, I'd be dead and he'd—" She stopped herself from finishing that though, but we all knew what she had been about to say, "I decided I didn't want to die that way, not without outing up a real fight and doing everything I could to protest myself and those I love. So I learned all sorts of self-defense. And after a while I didn't really, uh, hit in so well with high society around here, so I moved to Minneapolis and made a living from teaching others." She finished.

A silence fell over us after that. No one really knew how to follow that up, not even Rose so we all just sort of sat there for a few minutes. Tasha ended up being the one to break the silence that she had induced.

"Where's the best place a girl can go shopping around here?" She asked.

Lissa and Rose looked at eachother and then in unison said, "Missoula."

"That's a couple hours away, but if I leave soon, I can probably still get some time in before the stores close. I'm hopelessly behind in Christmas shopping." Tasha said.

"I'd kill to go shopping." Rose groaned.

"Me too." Lissa agreed.

"Maybe we could sneak along…" Rose hinted, giving me a hopeful look.

"No." I said simply.

"I'll have to grab some coffee, so I don't fall asleep on the drive in." Tasha said and then yawned.

"Can't one of your guardians drive for you?" Rose asked.

"I don't have any."

"Don't have any… You don't have any guardians?"

"Nope."

"But that's not possible!" Rose said, immediately shooting up from where she was sitting on the bed in the cabin** A/N tee he he such a special bed lol.** "You're royal, you should have at least one. Two really."

"The Ozera's aren't exactly first in line when guardians get assigned." Christian said bitterly. "Ever since…my parents died…there's kind of been a shortage."

"But that's not fair." Rose said, still extremely angry. "They can't punish you for what your parents did."

"It's not punishment, Rose." Tasha said, re-entering the conversation. "It's just… a rearranging of priorities."

"They're leaving you defenseless. You can't go out there by yourself!"

"I'm not defenseless, Rose. I've told you that and if I really wanted a guardian, I could make a nuisance of myself, but it's a lot of hassle. I'm fine for now."

"You want me to go with you?" I asked her then.

"And keep you up all night? I wouldn't do that to you, Dimka." She said.

"He doesn't mind." Rose said quickly, she was sitting back down now.

"I really don't." I said, holding a smile back at the fact that Rose decided to speak for me.

"All right." Tasha said after a moment's hesitation, " But we should probably go soon."

We all left the cabin then to go get ready to leave for me and Tasha and to go back to their dorms for Rose, Lissa and Christian. I walked back with Rose, wanting to talk to her some. I hadn't really talked to her much while we were at the cabin.

" So what do you think of her?" I asked.

"I like her, she's cool. And I get what you mean about the marks." She replied.

"Oh?" I asked, she nodded.

"She didn't do what she did for glory. She did it because she had to. Just like…just like my mom did." I could tell she hated to admit that about her mom. "The marks don't matter; molnijas or scars."

"You're a fast learner." I told her.

"Why does she call you Dimka." She asked. Okay, kind of random.

"It's a nickname for Dimitri."

"That doesn't make any sense. It doesn't sound anything like Dimitri. You should be called, I don't know, Dimi or something." She said. Wow.

"That's not how it works in Russian." I explained.

"Russian's weird." She observed.

"So is English." I countered.

"If you'd teach me how to swear in Russian, I might have a new appreciation for it." She said, giving me a sidelong look.

"You swear too much already."

"I just want to express myself."

"Oh, Roza, you express yourself more than anyone else I know." I told her. She smiled at that which made me happy too.

We walked in silence for a few moments after that.

"You know there's something funny about Tasha's scars." Rose said as we neared the school.

"What's that?"

"The scars… they mess up her face. I mean it's obvious she used to be really pretty, but even with the scars now… I don't know." She was having a hard time putting her thoughts into words, but I knew what she was getting at. "She's pretty in a different way. It's like…like they're a part of her. They complete her." She finally finished and I completely agreed.

"You're a fast learner, Roza."

With that she went up to her dorm and I went over to my room to get ready to head off with Tasha. I hadn't changed or anything since my practice with Rose so I decided to take a quick shower and change into some jeans and a thermal shirt. Tasha and I had agreed to meet eachother in an hour before we left the cabin. I had ten minutes to go meet her at the cars once I was finished changing and everything so I had to run to make it on time and I was still about five minutes late. Rose was rubbing off on me.

"You know, Dimka you should never make a lady wait." Tasha said smiling, as I got to the car she was standing next to.

"Oh, what could I ever do to get you to repay me?" I asked jokingly.

"Well, you'll just have to carry all of my bags at the mall." She said, getting into the passenger side of the car.

"Oh, joy." I said, we were both in the car now, driving toward the gates leading out of the Academy.

**You know, I know how to swear a little bit in Russian lol. I also know how to say I'm awesome and shut up in French lol. I use foreign languages for my own personal game lol. Well you know what to do…REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!;-]**


	7. Chapter 7

**Heyy! Oh my gosh it's been like a week since I last updated this, sorry, but I'm updating it now so yeah lol. And OMG I have to share something with you all. I just had a revelation while watching Gilmore Girls a few minutes ago and it was an episode during the time that Luke and Loralie(sp?) are dating and I realized that while they dated the two of them were completely the human older version of Dimitri and Rose lol. Or at least I feel like that haha. Cause Luke is all like responsible and reasonable and stuff, but he does lose his temper sometimes and the Loralie is all like care free and sarcastic and stuff ya know? Ok now on to the new chapter. You know what to do…REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!;-]**

About two hours later Tasha and I arrived at the mall in Missoula. I had know clue how much shopping she needed to do, but the mall was only going to be open for a few more hours so hopefully she'll be able to get it all done in that time frame.

"Dimka, do you want to get something to eat first?" Tasha asked as we entered the mall. The first thing we saw being the food court.

"Sure, why not?" I said.

We ended up getting some sushi and French fries. I know it's kind of a weird mix, but it's Tasha's favorite meal so I didn't object. When we sat down at one of the tables we stayed silent for a few minutes before Tasha finally spoke and what she had to say was beyond completely unexpected.

"Dimka?" She asked.

"Yes, Tasha?"

"Well I know that you are assigned to be Lissa's guardian after she graduates and I wouldn't want to compromise you, but…" She trailed off.

"But, what Tasha?" I was pretty sure I knew what she was asking, but still.

"Well…"

"Just spit it out Tasha."

"Would you be my guardian?" She asked.

"Was that really so hard to ask?" I asked her.

"Well, it wouldn't have been if I wasn't going to add something to that, but I am." She said, looking slightly embarrassed.

"What do you have to add?"

"Well, if you agree to be reassigned to me then… Well we could… We could uh…"

"Tasha. We could what?"

"We could have kids! Okay? Jeez!" She yelled at me and everyone around us turned and stared. Niice.

Wait what? Have kids with Tasha? I mean I'm friends with her, but after almost having sex with Rose I don't think I could picture myself with anyone but her ever again, which was bad. Very bad and things would never be able to work with Rose like that, but they could with Tasha. This is just too much to comprehend. Her asking me to be her guardian is one thing, but her asking me to have kids with her too takes it to a completely new level.

"Well?" She asked.

"I don't know Tasha."

"Okay, well think about it."

"I will." I said.

"Okay then, well how about we get some shopping done now." She said.

"Yeah, let's."

After that conversation I felt pretty awkward for the rest of the night. I mean I knew that Tasha and I were great friends, but I didn't know that she felt that way about me. I wasn't sure that I could picture myself with her like that. Not with my mind always focused on Rose in that way, but maybe going off with Tasha would be good for Rose and me. I mean if I went with Tasha, Rose and I wouldn't be around eachother like we are now. She would be able to move on from me and I could well, I would never move on from Rose, but at least I wouldn't be near her and seeing her everyday and just fueling my emotions for her. But would I be able to permanently stay away from her? Could I do that? I wasn't sure.

"Dimka?" Tasha said, pulling me out of my thoughts. "I want to get a gift for Rose, do you think she would like this?" She was holding a red dress with black embroidery up the side. Rose would love it.

"She'll love it."

"Okay then this it is. I'm done now, so we can get going. I know that I took a lot of sleeping time away from you. I'll go check out." She said.

We went back to the Academy after that and by the time I got to my room I was completely exhausted. I also had a lot to think about though. With that I decided to sleep now and I would call someone in the morning and ask them to take over my morning session with Rose so I could get more sleep then and think about things.

The next morning I called Janine and asked her to take over Rose's session for me and she agreed to. Rose was going to kill, but hey, I decided they could use a little quality time together. Little did I know that quality time with the two of them meant landing someone in the infirmary with a possible concussion. That someone being my Roza. Great.

Rose ended up not having a concussion, but she had a huge black eye, which will end up pissing her off even more. I was pretty upset that Janine had lost control of her temper and hit Rose in the face, but if she caused Janine to lose control than Rose must have been doing something to cause it.

"Janine!" I called when I saw her walking away from the infirmary, she walked over to me when she saw it was me. "What happened with you and Rose?" I asked.

"We were sparring and she was running her mouth and I lost control for a minute. I really didn't mean to do that. I wish I hadn't, I mean I doubt she really meant the things she said, she's just like that I guess. But the things she was saying was just really bothering me and I slipped up I guess. I feel terrible about it."

"I'm sure you do. Don't worry, at least it's only a black eye. Nothing serious." I said.

"Yeah, I know, but still. Well I've got to go, I'll see you later Guardian Belikov." And with that she left.

Rose's afternoon practice was canceled due to what happened with her mom so I had that time off. I didn't get a chance to really think about things that morning so I thought now.

I really wasn't sure if I would be able to be with Tasha in the way that she wants me. I mean I love her, but as a friend, nothing more. I can't love her as anything more than a friend because all of that goes to Rose and it always will, but just because I couldn't have what I do with Rose with Tasha that doesn't mean I couldn't have the relationship. I've already realized that Tasha can almost—_almost_—get my mind off of Rose, so that there is saying something, but Tasha has always been able to distract me from things, that's just the type of person she is.

I decided to make a pros and cons list of why going with Tasha would be good and why I should stay with Rose.

_**GO WITH TASHA**_

**_Pros:_**

**_1. She's been my best friend for years_**

**_2. She can take me away from Rose_**

**_3. I could have a kid, but do I want one if it's with her?_**

**_4. I wouldn't have to worry about getting arrested for kissing her, but would I want to kiss her?_**

**_Cons:_**

**_1. I wouldn't get to see Rose every day_**

**_2. I don't love her like that_**

**_3. I'd always be thinking about Rose_**

**_4. It wouldn't be fair to Tasha_**

_**STAY WITH ROSE**_

**_Pros:_**

**_1. I'M IN LOVE WITH HER!_**

**_2. I can't picture myself with anyone but her_**

**_3. I can't imagine going a day without seeing her or being near her or hearing her voice, I think it would kill me_**

**_4. I only ever want to be with her_**

**_5. She's amazing_**

**_6. We belong together_**

**_7. I never want to be away from her...ever!_**

**_8. I CAN'T be with anyone but her, it's impossible_**

**_9. We were made to be with eachother_**

**_Cons:_**

**_1. I'm seven years older than her_**

**_2. We both will be protecting Lissa_**

Okay so by the looks of that Rose wins out, but it just isn't that simple because I already knew that would happen before I started this. Why do things need to be so hard? And why couldn't this list have helped? Oh my God.

**Okay so I hoped you liked this chapter. I was going to make it longer, but one of my friends is going to be at my house in a couple minutes so I can't write anymore. Well you know what to do…REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!;-]**


	8. Chapter 8

**Heyy every1! Jeez it's been a while again, I think, I don't remember when I last updated, but it seems like it's been a while. Anyway, I read some amazing news on Richelle Mead's blog earlier! Okay so I don't know how many of you follow her blog, but I do and I read earlier that VA is being optioned as a movie which means it could be turned into a movie sometime or you know, it might not. But just having the possibility excites me haha. Well now that I have shared that, you know what to do…REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!;-]**

The next morning it was back to practice with Rose, I couldn't complain. When I rounded the corner to the gym I was shocked to see that she was already outside the doors leading into it. She was talking to another novice, Mason Ashford. He left as I came up to them though and so did the smile that had been on Rose's face while she had been talking to him. I realized she was in a bad mood immediately, but the fact that I seemed to have brought it on was a little upsetting—okay, more than a little.

We didn't talk much before she started he staking practice, I just let her go at it, correcting her mistakes every now and then.

"Your hair's in the way. Not only are you blocking you peripheral vision, you're running the risk of letting your enemy get a handhold." I told her at one point.

"If I'm actually in a fight, I'll wear it up." She said as she went back towards the dummy and staked it again. "I'm wearing it down today, that's all."

"Rose." I said firmly, but of course her being Rose, she didn't listen. I tried again, "Rose. Stop." I said more demanding, more like her mentor.

She did listen this time. She knew that she did have to listen to me if gave her a direct order and she did. She backed away, but she still wouldn't look at me. Well, she was going to.

"Look at me."

"Dimitri—" She started to protest, but I wasn't going to let her finish that thought.

_"Look at me._" I said in a hard voice.

She shifted her head so that it seemed like she was looking at me, but she wasn't. Her eyes were on the floor and her hair was still falling across that flawless face of hers. Okay not flawless at the moment, how about beautiful. Even with the black eye she was definitely still beautiful.

My hand twitched towards her face, wanting to use brushing her hair away as an excuse to touch her. I wanted to so bad and for so long, since the night of Victor's lust spell, but I couldn't. And I stopped myself now; I couldn't take a lapse in control right now. Or ever, really so I let my hand drop back to my side. As I did so she shook her hair out of her face and shifted her eyes to mine.

"Does it hurt?" I asked her, it was obvious what I was talking about.

"No." She said, but I could tell she was lying. I wouldn't call her on it though.

"It doesn't look so bad. It'll heal." I said.

"I hate her." There was so much venom in those three words; it was astonishing.

"No, you don't." I told her soothingly.

"I _do._" She said.

"You don't have time to hate anyone. Not in out profession, you should make peace with her." I said.

"Make peace with her? After she gave me a black eye on purpose? Why am I the only one who sees how crazy that is?"

"She absolutely did not do it on purpose." My voice wasn't soothing anymore. "No matter how much you resent her, you have to believe that and anyway, I saw her later that day. She was worried about you." I told her.

"Probably more worried someone will bring her up on child abuse charges." She mumbled.

"Don't you think this is the time of year for forgiveness?" I asked.

"This isn't a Christmas special! This is my life. In the real world, miracles and goodness just don't happen." She exclaimed.

"In the real world, you can make your own miracles." I said, calm next to her.

"Okay, can you just stop this for once?" She asked, hands on her hips.

"Stop what?" I asked her.

"The whole profound Zen crap thing. You don't talk to me like a real person. Everything you say is just some wise, life-lesson nonsense. You really do sound like a Christmas special. I swear sometimes it's just like you want to hear yourself talk! And I _know_ you're not always this way. You were perfectly normal when you talked to Tasha, but with me? You're just going through the motions. You don't care about me. You're just stuck in you stupid mentor role." Was she really saying this right now? Could she really believe that is true? If she does, she couldn't be further from the truth.

"I don't care about you?" I asked, having a hard time putting comprehensible sentences together in my head.

"No." She jabbed her finger into my chest then, "I'm just another student to you. You just go on and on with your stupid life lessons so that—"

I didn't let her finish. I grabbed the hand she was poking me with and pushed it and her as a result up against the wall.

"_Don't_ tell me what I'm feeling." I growled at her.

She didn't say anything to that for a while. She seemed to be thinking about something pretty intently. I was thinking that if she wasn't pissing me off so much at the time being that I wouldn't mind being in this position with her. It would be bad if someone came in the gym at the moment though.

"That's it isn't it?" She asked suddenly.

"What?"

"You're always fighting for control. You're the same as me." She said. And she was right, but I wasn't planning on letting her know that at the moment, even though it _was_ pretty obvious with how I was behaving.

"No." I said, still pretty angry. "I've learned my control." I told her, I lied to her.

"No." She told me matter-of-factly. "You haven't. You put on a good face and most of the time you do stay in control. But sometimes you can't. And sometimes…" She leaned towards me then, we were both breathing hard. God how can this girl do this to me? "Sometimes you don't want to." She finished.

"Rose…" I trailed off.

And then she kissed me. I knew I shouldn't have, but I couldn't help it; I kissed her back. I pressed up against her so that she was completely caught between me and the wall. With the hand I was already holding I laced my fingers through hers and I slipped my other hand behind her head and grabbed some of her gorgeous long dark brown hair. I could have stayed in this moment with her lips moving against mine, but I realized then that I couldn't and I pulled back from her. I felt like I was going to die without the feeling of her body against mine, but I knew I really wouldn't.

"Do _not _do that again." I said stiffly when what I really wanted to say was, 'hey, come to my room later.'

"Don't kiss me back then." She retorted. I didn't have anything to say back to that.

"I don't give 'Zen lessons' to hear myself talk. I don't give them because you're just another student. I'm doing this to teach you control." I said, changing the subject.

"You're doing a great job." She said bitterly.

"Бог черт возьми. Это девочки будет в конце, я клянусь." I said and then left the gym.

**Okay three pages is gonna have to be enough for today. And now I will translate for you. Бог черт возьми. Это девочки будет в конце, я клянусь = God damn it. That girls going to be the end of me I swear. In English and I can speak Russian a little bit, so if you guys want I will do the Russian I know for when Dimitri swears and then translate it in my A/N like I did this time. You know what to do…REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!;-]**


	9. Chapter 9

**Heyy every1! Sorry it's taken me so long to update, a lot of things have been going on lately, but here ya go. Better late than never I guess. Reviews are nice!**

The moment I walked out of the gym I saw Tasha. She hadn't noticed me and I didn't really want to talk to her at the moment. I was sure she'd manage t find me later anyways, so I snuck off to my room before she could notice me.

When I got to my room I went directly to the shower. After that I went to get breakfast and I was right, Tasha managed to find me there. I still didn't really want to see her. Rose was still on my mind, but then again, when wasn't she?

"Hey Dimka." Tasha said, sitting down next to me.

"Good morning, Tasha." I said formerly, she didn't notice.

"So have you thought any about what we talked about?"

"Yes, I have. And I don't know Tasha." I told her truthfully.

"Well why not? I mean we've been friends for soo long. It's not like we wouldn't be able to get along with eachother, I mean obviously." She said.

"It's not that, that's making me feel conflicted."

"Oh, you're thinking about the baby thing huh?" She asked.

I didn't reply.

"Well, I don't really think it's a big deal, I mean I like you, you like me."

"You like me in a different way, Tasha."

"Don't you think that you could ever feel the same way about me as I do you." She asked.

"No Tasha, I don't. I'm sorry." I told her. I didn't want to hurt her, but it might be necessary.

"Well, then you could always still be my guardian and we could stay just friends."

"Now that I will think about." And I would. Maybe I could do that. It would be easier leaving Rose to guard Tasha only than to do that and _be _with her.

"Good." She said as she stood from the table. She was just about to leave when she turned and asked, "Dimitri, who is she?"

"What do you mean?"

"Who's the girl that is keeping you from me?"

"There's no one Tasha, I just don't feel that way about you." I told her.

"I know, but there's someone else. I can tell. Dimitri, you can tell me, you know that if you didn't want me to say anything about it I wouldn't. Just tell me."

"I know Tasha, but not here. If you really want to know I will tell you, come over to my room later." I said.

"Okay, I'll do that."

"Okay, bye Tasha."

"Bye Dimitri." And with that she left.

The rest of the day went as normal, well other than the fact that I cancelled my afternoon practice with Rose, that and the rest of her practice up until Christmas break then after that I would have to see. I told that she could have a break since the holidays were coming up, but the truth is, I couldn't see her. Not with everything going on with Tasha and that kiss.

Speaking of Tasha, she is at my door now.

"Okay, let me guess who she is first." She said the moment I opened my door.

"Go for it." I said, doubting she would realize that it's Rose.

"It's Rose isn't it?" Okay so she did realize it is Rose.

"How did you know that?" I asked, astonished.

"It's pretty obvious Dimka. Well at least to me. I could see the way you looked at her when we were at the cabin. I could also see the way she looked at you."

"Oh."

"Yeah, so I figured hey, so if he is just my guardian well Rose will be Lissa's and Lissa will be with Christian and I will visit Christian and Lissa so the two of you can still be together, long distance, but together none the less."

"Rose and I can't be together Tasha." I told her.

"Well why not? I didn't come up with that plan for nothing."

"Tasha, she is seventeen and I am twenty-four. Do you really think that's okay?"

"Well, she will turn eighteen eventually, you know. And if you two love eachother then your age shouldn't matter."

"Tasha, we are also both guardians. We can't risk Moroi lives for our own wants." I said.

"How would you be risking our lives?"

"If Rose and I were ever with eachother and you and Lissa and Christian and whoever else and a pack of Strigoi there is no doubt in my mind that I would jump in front of her and try to save her even though I know she is capable of protecting herself, I wouldn't care, I would try to save her and get her away from the Strigoi before helping any of you even crossed my mind. And that cannot happen. Ever."

"Dimitri, don't you think that whether you are in a relationship with her or not, if you love her you would still do that anyways? Staying out of the relationship won't change how you feel about her or how you want to protect her more than us Moroi."

"I don't know that." I said.

"Yes you do. You just don't want to admit it."

"You should leave now Tasha." I told her.

"Fine, but you know I'm right." She said as she shut my door.

I went to bed thinking about what Tasha said. She was right, staying out of a relationship with Rose wouldn't change the fact that I'm in love with her and if I'm in love with her, whether she is my girlfriend or not, I will want to protect her above anyone else. I really should take Tasha's offer and be her guardian. Maybe it could make my love for Rose fade if I'm not around her constantly, but then again maybe it won't.

Rose visited me in my dreams that night. Normally when I dream about her I never want to wake up, but tonight I definitely wanted to wake up…to kill myself for hurting her the way I did.

"How could you do this to me Dimitri? How could you leave me? I love you! I thought you loved me." Rose screamed at me, tears running swiftly down her face.

"I do love you Rose, but I need to do this." I told her, voice calm.

"No you don't! You don't have to go with her. You don't have to guard Tasha! You can guard Lissa. How could you ever decide to leave me?"

"Rose, you know we can't guard the same person."

"You said we could. I don't care if we can never be together, I just need you here, with me." She said. I needed to be with her too, but I couldn't be. We couldn't risk Lissa's life.

"Well, I don't need you with me." I lied.

"You just said you loved me, now you're saying you don't need me? How?"

"Yes Rose I love you, but things can change, people can change. I will go with Tasha and I will eventually get over loving you and you will go with Lissa and you will get over loving me." How could I be saying these things?

"Fine Dimitri, just go. Just leave me, go off and have a happy ending with Tasha. Fine, just don't expect to _ever_ have me speak to you or _anything_ ever again unless I am forced to. God, I hate you Dimitri. At least now I know who you really are. And I hate this you; the real you." Then she ran into her dorm without a single look back at me.

I woke up then and I couldn't believe that dream. It made me hate myself. Could I hurt Roza like that by leaving, even if staying meant endangering Lissa. I wasn't sure.

I didn't go back to sleep after that. I couldn't, I was afraid of having another dream like the one I just had. I couldn't bear the thought of seeing Rose crying like that again or her telling me she hates me; even if it was only a dream. It seemed too real. Hopefully if I do go with Tasha, Rose won't respond like that. She probably would though. Maybe I would have to leave without telling her. That would hurt, but not as much as seeing her cry and having her tell me that she hates me. Nothing could hurt more than that. Absolutely nothing.

**Mk, I hope you like that chapter. I was gonna have Tasha be a bitch when she found out about Rose and everything, but then I came up with all of this and liked this a lot better than the bitchy version. So I hope you guys like it too. You know what to do…REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!;-]**


	10. Chapter 11

**Heyy guys! I'm finally back and I am soo happy. I'm doing an extra long UD for you today so I hope you enjoy. You know what to do...REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!;-]**

A few days later was Christmas and I hadn't seen Rose once since we kissed. I had canceled all our practices leading up to the ski trip that the entire Academy was going on. I knew I would see her today though because she would be eating with Lissa who was eating with Christian and Tasha. And Tasha had invited me to eat with them too.

I was pretty happy that I would be seeing Rose, but at the same time I knew that I shouldn't be feeling that way. I had loved the kiss we shared in the gym, but I knew that Rose and I couldn't be together so I had to be the adult and stop this. It was so hard though; I had been spending a lot of time with Tasha in the last couple days and that was helping with being away from Rose, but I knew that the moment I saw her this morning all that progress I had amde would instantly go away because she just has that effect on me. Knowing that this would happen I probably should have passed on the breakfast, but just the thought of seeing Rose was already making me crazy, so I had to go.

I got there before Rose, but Tasha, Christian and Lissa were already at the table. I was a little relieved when I saw that Rose wasn't there, but I knew she would get here eventually because she's Rose, she always shows up after everyone else.

She finally showed up with her friend-atleast I'm hoping they're just friends-Mason when I was in the middle of a conversation with about an old friend with Tasha.

"Five?" I was asking Tasha as Rose walked in. We were talking about how many kids our friend had. "I hadn't heard that."

"It's insane." Tasha said nodding her head. "I swear, I don't think his wife's had more than six months off between kids. She's short too so she just keeps getting wider and wider."

"When I first met him, he swore he didn't even want kids."

"I know!" Tasha said animatedly. "I can't believe it. You should see him now. I can't even understand him half the time. I swear, he speaks more baby talk than English."

"Well...children do that to people." I said, smiling.

"I can't imagine it happening to you. You're always so stoic. Of course...I suppose you would be doing baby talk in Russian, so no one would notice." Tasha said. I laughed. I also noticed Rose turn to Mason then to talk about something.

I would have loved to have talked to her, but I figured avoiding her would be for the best.

"I guess I would huh?" I said turning back to Tasha.

"Well I guess we'll never know since you've declined that part of my offer." She said. She was only joking though, she wasn't bothered by my not wanting to be with her romantically. She understood my dilema.

"Oh, Tasha." I said as Lissa turned to give Rose her Christmas present.

"What the..." Rose said as she opened the box that a bracelet was in.

She was obviously surprised by the boxes contents. It held a chotki which was like a rosary, but not quite the same. I couldn't quite undestand why Lissa chose to give that to Rose either.

"Are you trying to convert me?" Rose said jokingly, but I detected a note of seriousness in her gorgeous voice.

"Flip it over." Lissa told her.

She did. On the other side was the Dragomir crest, which would make you think that Lissa would wea it not Rose.

"It's a family heirloom." Lissa started to explain after Rose shot her a confused look. "One of my dad's good friends has been saving boxes of his stuff. This was in it. It belonged to my great-grandmother's guardian." She finished.

"Liss...you can't give me something like this."

"Well, I certainly can't keep it. It's meant for a guardian. My guardian." Lissa told her. Well what about me Lissa? No, I'm just kidding.

"You know, there's a good possibility that I'll get kicked out of school before I can become your guardian." Rose joked.

"Well, then you can give it back." Lissa said smiling. We all laughed at that.

Tasha was starting to say something then, but she got distracted when she saw Rose's mom, Janine walking up to the table.

"Janine!" She squeled.

"Sorry I'm late." Janine said. "I had business to take care of."

Wow, I guess Janine was always on the job, huh?

Once she she sat down at the table te conversation almost immediately turned to how to kill Strigo. Which would be fine some other time, but I didn't exactly think that Christmas morning was a good time to be talking aout killing. Even if it is Strigoi. It being Christmas obviously doesn't stop Janine though. Somehow we had already gotten to decapitations. Other than Janine the only person who really seemed into this conversation was Mason. Rose looked like she was about to punch someone.

"Well decaoitations aren't as easy as they seem." Janine was saying. "You've got to get through the spinal cord and tendons."

"What's the best weapon to do it with?" Mason asked enthusiastically.

"An axe." Janine said after a moments consideration. "You can get more weight behind it."

"Cool. Man I hope they let me carry an axe."

I almost laughed outright at that. It seemed Rose wanted to laugh too, but she held it back. I could just imagine him walking around with an axe hanging from his belt. Oh Lord please help this boy.

After that everyone gave out gifts. Tasha gave Rose a red dress that I would kill to see her in and she gave me some new books. Good old Tasha. I alrady knew what she was getting me though, which she was a little upset about. She had gotten them when I went shopping with her so it was sort of unavoiable that I saw what they were.

Soon after that we all left the cafeteria in our own little groups. Rose, Mason and Janine went off together-I can only imagine how Rose felt about the Janine part. Christian and Lissa went off together and I went off with Tasha.

"Are you excited for the ski trip?" Tasha asked.

"I guess. I'd be more excited if I actually got this time off though." I told her.

"See if you would just agree to be my guardian then you would be able to go and have fun with me." Tasha said, half joking half serious.

"You know you're starting to get pretty convincing."

"Oh really? Does that mean you're going to be my guardian? Please say yes."

"I don't know Tasha."

"Okay, just make sure you think it all the way through about a million times before you say no if that's what you're planning on saying."

"I'll be sure to do that. Now I've got to go finish some packing." I said as we reached the building my room was in.

"Okay, I do too. I'll see you later, Dimka."

"Bye, Tasha."

I went up to my room and finished packing my suitcase for the trip. I didn't really need a lot what with the fact that I was going to be on duty practically the entire time, so I wouldn't need more that my duster for outside. I finished in about twenty minutes.

About an hour after I finished packing I had to go meet with the other guardians that were going on the trip so we could get where we would be guarding at the lodge and when we would be guarding it worked out. I got lucky and didn't get assigned any time out at the front gates. That was probably one of the most boring things that you could get stuck with. I'll mostly be watching over the lounge and some of the wings where the students will be staying. I also have to watch over some of the parties, including Priscilla Voda's big luncheon. It was the biggest party that went on with the royals during Christmas time.

Once we finished the meeting it was nearing dinner time so I went straight to the cafeteria and just grabbeda ham sandwhich and some Dill Pickle Pringles. **A/N Those are like the best chips ever! Haha.** Then I went back to my room to eat it and started reading one of the books that Tasha gave me. After that I went to bed and fell into a dreamless sleep.

The next day we went to the ski lodge. I sat next to Tasha on the plane. I saw Rose get on after me and she didn't even look at me once as she passed by. She just walked right to the back of the plane and sat next to Mason with that gorgeous smile of hers on her face. You know I didn't really know him very well, but I was really starting to dislike Mason. So instead of thinking about the two of them back there I turned to Tasha and started talking to her.

"How long's it been since you've been skiing?" I asked.

"To long. I think I might just skip the skiing and do stuff inside the resort; save myself the embarassment. Especially since I was never really that good at it in the first place. I'm more of an ice skating person." She rambled.

"Trust me I know." I said with a small laugh. She laughed too.

"Maybe you and I should go skating while you were there. You didn't get to show off your awesome skills when we were all out at the cabin when I first got here." She said smiling. She knew I wasn't very good at ice skating.

"Yeah, see you and I are exact opposites when it comes winter sports. I would much rather ski." I said also smiling.

"Well yeah, but I am not very good at skiing like I already said and sure you aren't good at skating, but it's much safer for someone who isn't good at skating to go skating than it is for someone who isn't good at skiing to go skiing, you know. You wouldn't want to put a Moroi in danger now, would you?" She asked trying not to smile again.

"Okay, Tasha we'll go skating." I said.

"Yay!"

We were mostly silent for the rest of the trip. We talked about a few things here and there, but not much. I read some, Tasha was happy I was putting her gift to use. One thing I liked about her was that little things like that made her smile. It was nice; she has such an easygoing relaxed personality. Which is so different from Rose, it's amazing. Maybe that's why I love Rose so much. Since she came back to the Academy she's hard to get close to and I like that she let me in when she only let's so few people in. I don't know. For whatever reason it is that I have these feelings, they're hard to ignore even if I'm trying to do it for someone as sweet as Tasha.

Once we got to the resort I helped Tasha take her bags to her room and then I went to my room which was only a floor above Tasha's, thank God because I didn't really feel like carring my bags very far. I was actually kind of tired. Once I got my things all in order I went to take a shower and then I went back to Tasha's room to get her. We made plans to eat lunch together and I was getting pretty hungry. We were just going to stay in her room and order room service because she didn't really want to be around a bunch of other royals and with the way they treated her sometimes I couldn't blame her.

She opened the door right away when I got there. And then we decided what to get, which was shrimp, calamari and some chicken. **A/N God calamarie is good. I had it for the first time when I went to NYC a couple weeks ago and it was amazing...Who knew squid could be good? Lol**. She ordered the seafood and I picked the chicken I knew she would make me have some of the shrimp which I didn't mind, but I also knew she was going to try to make me try the calamarie which I have never had and was planning on keeping it that was until I the day I die. Well so much for that.

The calamarie actually ended up being really good, it didn't even taste fishy which amazed me. It also came with a sauce that I'm not sure what is, but it tasted pretty good too. I was happy I had agreed to have lunch with Tasha, it was fun. I cut it close to my first guarding shift, but that was okay. I still managed to make it right on time.

**Okay so I hope you guys liked this chapter. My back hurts from sitting at my copmuter so long to write it haha, but that's okay. You know what to do...REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!;-]**


	11. Chapter 12

**Heyy everyone! I am soo sorry that it has been so long since I've given you a real update, things have just been so crazy and hectic since school started especially since I am in Honors Global and Honors English, I've been doing a lot of writing for that English class lately. Sooo anyways I have a four day weekend this week and there is no New England Patriots game this week either so I will give you an update this weekend and I promise it will be loooooooooooong. So I am looking forward to giving you all some new stuff and I hope you are all looking forward to reading it. I will be trying to update once a week from here on out, but I'm not making any guarantees other than that you won't go any more that two weeks without an update ever again unless something extrememly random happens and I can't use my computer like say it breaks or something lol that will be the only reason I will ever not give you an update for more than two week lol. So I hope you guys are all still wanting to read this. And for those of you who have asked me this, YES I will be doing the entire series. I'm actually really excited to get to when Dimitri is turned because it will be a challenge for me to get the evillness of a Strigoi down so whenget to that point you all have to promise to give me a lot of feedback that way I know what you think I am doing good on with the evillness and what I could improve on because that will be knew to me, but we still have a while before I get there so we don't have to worry about that right now haha. So just be expecting an update this weekend. I'm not sure which day I will be posting it on, but I'm thinking either Friday or Monday, but I'm really not sure so just be looking out for it. ;-]**


	12. Chapter 13

**Heyy everyone! I'm back. I'm going to do a really long update for you today since it's been soo long. I promise that I will never go that long without updating again. I really hope this chapter makes up for everything. You know what to do...Review Review Review! ;-] P.S you guys are going to hate me for something that is going to happen in this chapter and something that will possibly happen in a later chapter due what is going to happen in this one, but I think it will make my story more interesting so yea.. lol it'll be okay cuz you all know how it ends anyways.**

My first shift at the lodge was pretty uneventful which I was happy about because we came to the lodge to keep everyone safe. So I managed to get a pretty peaceful night of sleep before going skating with Tasha the next morning.

"Come on Dimka! Are you seriously still that bad at skating? You would think that someone from Siberia would be good at this." Tasha teased as she twirled around on the ice.

I on the other hand was fighting to keep from falling on my ass and I wasn't doing to good of a job at it; I had already fallen twice.

"You know, I think you and Rose have very similar stereotypes of Siberia. You both seem to think that it is an arctic wasteland." I said.

"Oh whatever, it's cold isn't it? You should be able to skate." She said gliding over to me. "Here let me help you." She said as she grabbed my hands and led me out to the middle of the pond we were on.

"What are you going to try to teach me?"

"That's exactly what I am going to do. We are going to come out to this pond as many times as we can until you learn and can skate as well as me. Okay maybe not quite like me, but you won't be embarrassing yourself once I'm done with you." She told me.

"Okay." I conceded.

Once Tasha was finished with her lesson that I fear are going to become daily things, she grabbed a picnic basket that she brought and we had lunch out on the pond, which was nice.

"So," Tasha started after taking a bite of her sandwich, "are you going to be my guardian or what?"

"I don't know, Tasha. It's a really big decision to make." I told her.

"I know it. I'm sorry I'm being such a bother about it. I'm just so anxious for you to say yes." She said.

"How do you know I'll say yes?"

"Hmm?...Oh I'm just being optimistic. You know me." Tasha said smiling.

Soon after that we went back to the lodge. She headed off to her room and I went to start my shift which was...interesting today.

I had to watch the lounge today and ran into Adrian Ivashkov who to my displeasure was looking for Rose. With two of their reputations I could only imagine what he was looking for her for. I know that Rose has changed a lot, but still, it was Adrian Ivashkov for crying out loud.

"Hey, you're one of the guardians from St. Vlad's right?" Adrian asked me.

"Yes I am." I said.

"Okay well I'm Adrian Ivashkov, do you know Rose Hathaway?" He asked.

"Yes, I do, Lord Ivashkov."

"Have you seen her today, I'd like to talk to her."

"Um no I haven't sorry, but can I ask you why you need her? I'm her mentor back at the Academy."

"Oh I just want to talk to her. She doesn't seem to like me, I want to change her mind." He said.

"Oh and how would you be planning to do that?"

"Ha, no way am I telling her mentor. I don't want to get her in trouble, now do I?" He said and then walked away.

"Oh good God." I muttered as he left.

Soon after that my shift ended and I went back to my room to sleep. Well try to sleep, I was too worried about Adrian finding Rose to get a lot of sleep. Hopefully if he did find her she was smart enough to leave. I'm pretty sure she would be, but she's a teenager so I guess I can never really know. At least I know that she apparently didn't like him from first impressions so hopefully he won't be able to manage changing that.

I was half asleep still the next morning when I 'woke up'. I'm not sure you could really call it waking up when I had only been asleep for about 45 minutes, so the first thing I did was go down to the dining area to get a huge cup of coffee.

"Dimka!" I heard Tasha yell from behind me. Well I'm definitely going to be awake now. "Do you have time for another lesson today? You could really use one."

"Sure, but I have to work this morning so we'll have to do it later on."

"That's perfect. I have to meet with Christian in about an hour so I wasn't going to be able to help you know anyways." She said.

"Okay good, we can meet around five o'clock then." I said.

"That sounds great, but in the meantime do you have time to sit and eat breakfast with me?"

"Um sure I have about half an hour before I have to check in."

"Great." She said with a big smile on her face.

We went and got our food then and sat down at a table near the windows. It was dark outside, running on a nocturnal schedule could be a downer sometimes like right now. I really could have used some sun right now to help wake me up.

"So have you been thinking about anything special that I might be interested in?" She asked as we sat at the table.

"Oh I've been thinking about something, but not what you want me to say I've been thinking about. I hardly got any sleep last night due to my thinking."

"What were you thinking about?" She asked, concerned.

"Do you know any of the Ivashkov's personally?" I asked her.

"I know Daniella. Why?"

"How does she relate to Adrian Ivashkov?" I asked her, happy that she at least knew one of them.

"Oh, she's his mother. Again, why?"

"So you know Adrian then?"

"Yes I do, again, why do you want to know, Dimka?"

"He was looking for Rose last night. He wanted to make her change her mind about not liking him. I was just worried about _how_ he was planning on attempting that because he wouldn't tell me because he didn't want to get her in 'trouble.' You don't think he would try anything do you?"

"Oh no he would try to get her in bed, but I really don't think Rose would fall for any of his 'charm' she's smarter than that, don't worry about it."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm positive. You know I would expect that you would trust her." She said.

"I do trust her, I just don't trust Adrian."

"Well I don't think that any boy would be able to force Rose to do anything. Don't worry about it, and if Rose doesn't want to, Adrian won't make her, he's not that bad of a guy."

"Okay, I'll take your word for it. I've got to go now though. I'll see you later." I said standing up.

"Okay, see you at the pond at five." She said as I walked off.

Today I had to guard the gates at the entrance of the resort with Wes which ended up not being as hellish as it normally would have been. I can thank Tasha for that, she was what he talked to me about, not Rose for once.

"What's up with you and Tasha Ozera?" Wes asked a few minutes after we go to the gate.

"Oh, she's an old friend of mine. She's trying to get me to be her guardian."

"Are you going to do it. She seems pretty into you, maybe you could get a little something extra out of it." He said with a laugh.

"No it's not like that and I'm still thinking about the whole guardian thing. I mean I'm already the princesses guardian. I don't know if I can just leave her needing a knew one with only a few months left until graduation."

"Oh please, you know they would find her an amazing guardian within the week if you chose to go with Tasha."

"I guess."

"Why wouldn't you want to go be her guardian? I mean really, she seems really nice and you even said that you have been friends for a while. It seems like the perfect set-up for a guardian. I mean I would jump at the chance to guard a friend of mine."

"I don't know, it's just a hard decision to make. Especially since the queen thinks that I'm good enough to guard the princess, it makes me want to prove that I am. I don't know I just think that it would be a really good thing to guard her."

"Oh yeah, I see what you mean. It would be a pretty big honor to be trusted to guard the last Dragomir."

"Exactly."

"So what do you think you'll decide?" He asked.

"I'm honestly not sure, I'm thinking about it a lot though."

"I'm sure."

We fell silent after that. I wonder what he would have said if I had told him the biggest reason this was such a hard decision; that I'm in love with Rose. I wonder what he would have said to me then. I probably didn't want to know.

We got to head back to the lodge at about four o'clock which gave me just enough time to go back to my room, get changed and head out to the pond to meet Tasha. When I got out there Tasha was already twirling around the pond. She looked so peaceful out there on the ice. Why couldn't I just love her like I do Rose? I've asked myself that question so many times and am still unable to answer it. Things would be so much easier if I was in love with Tasha instead of Rose. Maybe I could grow to be in love with Tasha? I mean I already love her as a friend, I'm sure that love could grow if I gave it time.

Tasha still hadn't noticed me so I just stood there watching her and pondering out situation. What should I do? She noticed me then and stopped in the middle of the pond.

"Take a picture, Dimka, it'll last longer." She laughed, she had a pretty laugh. "Get your skates on and get out here, you have some learning to do." I smiled at that, maybe I could fall in love with her.

"So how are going to torture me today?" I asked her as I started to stand up with the skates on. It wasn't working so well so Tasha came over to help me which didn't work so well either.

She came over and grabbed my hands like she had yesterday and started to pull me up. Once I was about halfway up I fell backwards with her on top of me into the snow. We both started laughing.

"You know, I think I like being in this position with you." Tasha said, smiling.

"You would." I said, also smiling.

"Oh yeah, now come on let's get up. I have to teach you more if you are ever going to get good at skating."

This time we both managed to get up okay. Tasha had snow all throughout her hair which I couldn't help but laugh at when I looked at her.

"What?" She asked.

"Come here." I said and wiped some of the snow out of her hair. "You have snow all over your head." I told her, she blushed.

"Well get it out."

"I'm working on it." I said.

As I got the snow out of her hair she just kept smiling up at me. This 'lesson' seemed to be turning into more of a first date. It actually seemed like a real first date too. Not just a first date between two people, but like a teenagers date who has never been on one before, ever. It just had that type of feel to it due to what has happened so far. And maybe it was a good thing that it was feeling like this. Maybe I needed something to feel like this with Tasha.

After I got all of the snow out of her hair, Tasha started giving me instructions. By the end of the lesson I was actually starting to get better. I hadn't fallen since Tasha attempted to get me up so that was a plus.

"You're getting better." Tasha sang as we took of our skates and put on our normal shoes.

"Yeah I know. It's a miracle."

"No, I'm just that good of a teacher." Tasha said smiling. That smile seemed to be a permanent fixture on her face lately, it was nice.

"Sure let's go with that." I said.

"Oh whatever. Go grab that basket, I packed another picnic for us to have."

"Okay."

So I grabbed that basket and we made out way back out onto the ice to eat like we did yesterday. I was really liking these lesson's with Tasha. They were a nice getaway from the real world where things weren't nearly this simple.

"So I saw Rose today when I went to see Christian. She was kind of mean to me, I don't really know why."

"Let's not talk about Rose, okay? I'd rather keep these things simple. You and me talking abut Rose does not equal simple."

"I guess you're right huh? Well then you're getting better at skating." She said changing the subject.

"Yeah, I didn't think that was even possible. A lot of people have tried to teach me before, but it's never worked until now."

"Well I guess you just respond to me better than you do to other people, or at least you are capable of responding to me well." She said, I could sense the double meaning in her words.

"Yeah, I guess so." I said playing dumb.

"You know Dimitri, I think that we could have a really good thing if you became my guardian." She said sliding closer to me. " I mean we already get along so well and can you honestly say that you aren't starting to feel something between us." She asked looking up at me with wonder and I think love in her eyes, I couldn't lie to her anymore; or to myself for that matter.

"You know what I don't think I can. There is something between us and you might be right. Maybe we could have something if I became your guardian." I said and it was the truth.

"Really?" She asked, her face so close to mine.

"Yes." I said.

She brought her lips closer to mine then and I closed the rest of the distance between us and kissed her. It was a nice kiss. It felt right, it didn't feel quite the same as kissing Rose, but I still felt something in it. There was definitely something between Tasha and I. I had to stop lying to myself now, it's inevitable. This kiss proves that I could go be with Tasha. I'll always love Rose of course, but I can also love Tasha and be with her. And being with Tasha won't cause me the problems being with Rose would.

"Wow." Tasha said pulling out of the kiss first. I smiled down at her as she snuggled against my chest and I put my arms around her. The sun was coming up now and it was beautiful, the perfect sight for this moment.

**Ahhh see I told you that you guys would hate me for this haha. So I also said that this could possibly lead to something else in a chapter later on. I'm not sure that it will, but I'm thinking about it. What do you think it will lead to? If you want to guess I will tell you in a PM if you are right. Anyways I know there was know Rose in this chapter, but I still think it's pretty good and I hope you all do too. You know what to do...REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!;-]**


	13. Chapter 14

**Okay so I am skipping straight to the meeting after more Moroi get killed when Dimitri FINALLY sees Rose again cause I really want to write what I decided to write there haha. You know what to do...REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!;-] Oh and f.y.i I had a beastly idea that I am pretty sure hasn't been written about before. I told you guys about something that the kiss in the last chapter could lead to, well I decided that was way too going overboard for this story and would be soo OOC for Dimitri so instead of that being in this I'm going to create a story that branches off of this and is going to be my own creation and I have yet to read a fanfic about the idea I came up with so I'm really excited to start it and the next chapter which I am going to write and post right after this one is going to explain what that one will be about so please give me some feedback after you read that A/N and tell me if you like the idea and want me to write it. Okay now onto this story haha.**

I had been really thinking about taking Tasha's offer and being with her for the past few days since we kissed. Honestly I was really considering it, but then I saw Rose in her mother's room today and now I'm back to square one with this whole thing. I realized that the only reason I was so close to excepting Tasha's offer was because I hadn't seen Rose, let alone be around her and now that I had been it just changed everything.

Now I was at a meeting for all of the Moroi and Dhampirs at the resort and of course I saw Rose right once I walked in and possibly against my better judgment I went over to sit beside her. She didn't say anything as I sat down, just looked at me. Soon after that the meeting started, I could only imagine what most of the royals would say. They started talking about what we needed to do to keep the Moroi safer.

"The answer's all around us." One Moroi started. "Here. In places like this lodge. And St. Vladimir. We send our children to safe places, places where they have safety in numbers and can be easily guarded. And look how many of us made it here, children and adults alike. Why don't we live this way all the time?" He asked.

"Plenty of us already do." Shouted another Moroi from the crowd.

"A couple of families here and there." The Moroi at the front said casting off the other man's comment. "Or a town with a large Moroi population. But those Moroi are all decentralized. Most don't pool their resources—their guardians, their magic. If we could emulate this model..." He said motioning all around the room. "...we'd never have to worry about Strigoi again."

"And Moroi could never interact with the rest of the world again." Rose muttered next to me. "Well, until the humans discovered secret vampire cities sprouting up in the wilderness. Then we'd have _lots_ of interactions." She finished sarcastically, she was right though.

"The problem is simply that we don't have enough guardians." Said one of the Szelsky women, who was up there now. "And so, the answer is simple: _get more_. The Drozdovs had five guardians, and that wasn't enough. On;y six to protect twelve Moroi! That's unacceptable. It's no wonder these kinds of things keep happening."

"Where do you propose getting more guardians from?" Asked them man who had been up there previously. "They're kind of a limited source."

She pointed at the novices. "We've got plenty already. I've watched them train. They're deadly. Why are we waiting for them to turn eighteen? If we accelerated the training program and focused more on combat training than bookwork, we could turn out new guardian when they're sixteen." She finished. Now that was ridiculous. How on earth could someone come up with a plan so idiotic? You could tell these Moroi were in panic mode.

"Not only that," The woman went on. "We have plenty of potential guardians going to waste. Where are all the Dhampir women? Our races are intertwined. The Moroi do their part to help the Dhampir survive. Why aren't these women doing theirs? Why aren't they here?"

And que Tasha laughing.

"Those women aren't here Monica, because they're too busy raining their children—you know, the ones you want to start sending out to the fronts as soon as they can walk. And please don't insult us all by acting like the Moroi do a huge favor to the Dhampirs by helping them reproduce. Maybe it's different in your family, but for the rest of us, sex is fun. The Moroi doing it with Dhampirs aren't really making that big of a sacrifice." Tasha finished.

My back was starting to hurt from how I was sitting so I straightened up then. I noticed Rose look at me through the corner of her eye.

"And the reason we're waiting for these guardians to turn eighteen is so that we can allow them to enjoy some pretense of a life before forcing them to spend the rest of their days in constant danger. They need those extra years to develop mentally as well as physically. Pull them out before they're ready, treat them like they're part of an assembly line and you're just creating Strigoi fodder." There were audible gasps from people in the room as Tasha finished that sentence. "You create more fodder still if you try making the other Dhampirs women become guardians. You can't force them into that life if they don't want it. This entire plan of yours to get more guardians relies on throwing children and the unwilling into harms way, just so you can—barely—stay one step ahead of the enemy. I would have said it's the stupidest plan I've ever heard, if I hadn't already had to listen to his." Tasha said, pointing to the first speaker.

"Enlighten us then, Natasha," said the man. "Tell us what _you_ think we should do, seeing as you have so much experience with Strigoi." Tasha just smiled at that.

"What do I think?" She asked walking forward. "I think we should stop coming up with plans that involve us relying on someone or something to protect us. You think there are too few guardians? That's not the problem. The problem is there are too many Strigoi. And we've let them multiply and become more powerful because we do nothing about them except have stupid arguments like this. We run and hide behind the Dhampirs and let the Strigoi go unchecked. It's out fault. _We_ are the reason those Drozdovs died. You want an army? Well, here we are. Dhampirs aren't the only ones who can learn to fight. The question, Monica, isn't where the Dhampirs women are in this fight. The question is: _where are we?"_ Tasha was yelling by now, her cheeks flushed.

"Surely you aren't suggesting the Moroi fight alongside the guardians when the Strigoi come?" Monica asked.

"No. I'm suggesting the Moroi and the guardians go fight _before_ they come."

Another Moroi shot up then and started to speak. "Oh," he said mockingly. "So you're going to just give us clubs and stakes and send us off to do battle?"

"If that's what it takes, Andrew, then sure." She said with a sly smile. "But there are other weapons we can learn to use too. Ones the guardians can't." She finished.

"Oh, yeah? Like what?" Andrew asked her.

"Like this." Tasha said and then Andrew's sweater on the back of his chair burst into flames.

The meeting broke into chaos then. It probably wasn't the best idea on Tasha's part to light something on fire, she should have just used words to get her point out there that way people would have reacted more calmly, but with a Moroi like Tasha setting things on fire? Well hardly anyone is going to react calmly to that, no matter what point she was trying to get across by doing so.

I stoop up to leave then, but turned to Rose first. "You might as well leave," I told her. "Nothing useful's going to happen now." Rose and Mason—who she was sitting next on the other side—stood up after I said that, but Mason shook his head when Rose looked towards him.

"You go on, I want to check something out." He said to Rose.

"Good luck." Rose said shrugging and then he walked off leaving Rose and I alone to walk out into the hall together.

"Shouldn't you be in there protecting Tasha?" She asked as soon as we were out of the room. "Before the mob get her? She's going to get in big trouble for using magic like that."

"Tasha can take care of herself." I said, confused as to where all of this had come from.

"Yeah, yeah, because she's a badass karate magic user. I get all that. I just figured since you're going to be her guardian and all..." She trailed off. How the hell had she found out about that? She was _not_ supposed to know this. I didn't' want her to know that there was a possibility that I could be leave with Tasha after we leave the ski resort.

"Where did you hear that?" I asked calmly, not letting any of my inner feelings be known to her.

"I have my sources." She said trying to be mysterious. "You've decided to, right? I mean, it sounds like a good deal, seeing as she's going to give you fringe benefits."

"What happens between her and me is none of your business." I told her. I could tell by the brief look that crossed through her eyes that my words had hurt her. I hadn't meant for them to, but she was really making me mad. Not at her—well a little at her—but mostly at myself because I knew that this news had to have hurt her.

"Well, I'm sure you guys'll be happy together. She's just your type too—I know how much you like women who aren't your own age. I mean, she's what, six years older than you? Seven? And I'm seven years younger than you." I could not believe she really just said that.

"Yes," I said after several silent moments. "You are. And every second this conversation goes on, you only prove how young you really are." I could tell that had gotten to her. I know it was a harsh thing to say, but at that moment it was completely just _her_ that was pissing me off.

"Little Dhampir," A voice sounded. Adrian Ivashkov's voice. "I don't want to interrupt or anything. I just wanted to talk to you when you get the time."

"I've got time now." Rose said with that smile that could get any man and you know some women to do anything for her, even kill someone. Then she looked at me, "See you later, Guardian Belikov." She said and then walked away with Adrian's arm draped over her.

I felt a glare on my face the entire time I watched them walk away. It still hadn't gone away when I got back to my room. I was supposed to have met Tasha as soon as the meeting was finished for her, but I didn't really feel like seeing anyone especially not Tasha. I couldn't handle seeing her right now, not with all the feelings I was experiencing with Rose at the moment. I wouldn't have been able to hide it and Tasha—and I before I saw Rose this morning—had really thought that I was going to be with her romantically. Now? Well I'm not sure at all anymore.

**Sorry this isn't too long guys. I just don't really have time to do a long UD right now especially since I want to get the info about the possible other fanfic up later tonight. Any ways REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!;-]**


	14. Possible new fanfic?

**Okay soo if you guys think that this is a good idea I'm going to sort of do a branch off story that will partially be of my own creation, but there still will be things that happened in the actual VA in this fanfic if I make it. Okay my idea is that in the beginning of the new fanfic Dimitri and Tasha will sleep together while they're still at the ski resort, but when they leave Dimitri tells her that he is gonna stay at the Academy and with Lissa. When Tasha goes back to her house she finds out that she is pregnant and she keeps the baby and so on. And it will be multiple POV's—Dimirtri's, Tasha's and Rose's. And it will go along with that. So tell me what you guys think about this and if you want me to do the fanfic. I really want to know what you all think :) so please give me some feedback!**


	15. Chapter 15

**Heyy everyone, I'm soo sorry that I haven't updated in so long. I had some difficulties uploading to the website and by the time I managed to get a friend who does stories on here sometimes to help me figure that out (it happened to her before) I knew that I was getting a new laptop for Xmas and didn't want to have to move more over to that so I was going to wait to get that. Then before I got time to write someone really close to me died and he was only 21 so that made it even harder that he was young and I didn't see it coming so that really just made me not want to do anything let alone write this story. But now I'll get away from the excuses and on to what you really care about, I'm going to update this weekend and will be updating on a schedule from now on like I had been planning on before everything happened. I hope you guys haven't given up on this story, but if you have I understand. I wouldn't want to keep following a story that didn't have an update for that long either. But if you haven't given up on this story thank you soo much :)**


	16. Chapter 16

**Heyy everyone I'm back :) Sorry it's taken so long for me to do another update, but sometimes things happen that you don't foresee. Anyways I hope you like this chapter. You know what to do...REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!;-]**

For the rest of the day I basically just stayed in my room other than when I was on duty. I had also heard that Rose got mixed up in some sort of fight down by the pools, I didn't really hear any of the specifics though. The thing that really bothered me about her being down at the pools and in that fight is that she was down there with Adrian Ivashkov. It wasn't necessarily that I was jealous—although that was definitely part of it—it was more that I didn't trust him being around her. Everyone had heard the stories about him; the drinking, the women. I didn't want Rose to become one of those women. I know she's responsible, but I also know that she's trying to get back at me for being with Tasha so often and after this afternoon I know that she is using Adrian to do that. I just don't know how far she will go to get back at me. Hopefully not too far.

A lot of my thinking that afternoon and night went to Rose. Whether it was about her and Adrian or if it was about if I should stay at the Academy with her and Lissa or not. I know I love Rose and you'd think that would make me want to stay, but instead it was exactly the reason I should leave with Tasha. But leaving with Tasha is easier said than done.

I fell asleep thinking of Rose that night. The next morning I had to think of another Hathaway. The phone was ringing when I stepped out of the shower the next day after my morning shift so I wrapped a towel around my waist and walked out the grab my phone**(A/N there's some nice imagery for you ladies out there:] )** It was Janine. She had found out some new information in the Drozdov attack.

"Well we know where they are." Janine said as I came though her door.

"Where?" I asked.

"Spokane, Washington. We found tunnels under a mall that show they're out there."

"So what are we going to do then? Now that we know where they are? What does the Guardian Council have to say? I mean obviously we can't just go find them, but is anything being planned?" I asked her.

"Well they aren't sure what they want us to do, but they've held a few small meeting since we found the information out." Janine told me.

"I see. Well hopefully they can decide on something soon."

"Yeah, this better not be another thing that they decide to take months going over. We most likely don't have that type of time. Well I've got to get going, I have a shift in ten minutes."

"Okay, I'll see you later." I said as we went different ways down the hall leaving her room.

I was almost at the end of the hall when I was Rose standing outside someone's door. I could just make out what was being said.

"Don't send me anymore gifts." Rose said, obviously annoyed.

"It isn't a gift." I heard a man's voice say from inside the room. "What women doesn't own perfume." I could tell now that it was Adrian.

"What are you doing here?" Rose asked someone else inside the room.

"What are _you_ doing here?" I could here the person now. It was a girl.

"Ladies, ladies, no need to fight over me." Adrian said.

"We're not." Rose said with a glare on her face that was even obvious to me. "I just want to know what's going on here."

"Me too." I said, standing behind Rose now. Rose practically jumped through the ceiling at the sound of my voice. I was shocked to see that the girl I heard inside Adrian's room was Lissa, but there she was sitting on his bed...

"Male and female students aren't supposed to be in eachother's rooms." I told them.

"How do you keep doing this?" Rose asked Adrian, angrily.

"Do what?" Adrian asked.

"Keep making us look bad."

"You guys are the ones who came here." Adrian said with a small laugh.

"You shouldn't have let them in. I'm sure you know the rules at St. Vladimir's." I said, keeping my guardian mask on so they wouldn't realize how angry I was.

"Yeah, but I don't have to follow any stupid school's rules." He said shrugging, making me even angrier.

"Perhaps not," I said, my voice like ice. "But I would have thought you'd still respect those rules."

Rolling his eyes, Adrian said, "I'm kind of surprised to find _you _lecturing on underage girls." I almost lost it right there. What the hell had Rose told him. Or had he heard us yesterday arguing after that meeting? Either way I wanted to punch him in the face right now. But I didn't, luckily for him.

"Besides, nothing sordid was going on." Adrian continued. "We were just hanging out."

"If you want to hang out with young girls, do it at one of the public areas."

Adrian laughed then and a rather disturbing look crossed his face. "Young girls? _Young _girls? Sure. Young and yet old at the same time. They've barely seen anything in life, yet they've already seen too much. One's marked with life, the other's marked with death...but _they're_ the ones you're worried about? Worry about yourself Dhampir. Worry about you, and worry about me. We're the ones who are young.

_?_

Yeah I definitely did not want Rose hanging out with him. I don't want Lissa hanging out with him either. Maybe all the drinking has caught up with him or something. I don't care, but I don't want him around either of these girls. It's my job to protect them and he's not safe or stable.

"You ladies should probably go. He's right. I am a bad influence." Adrian said now calm and normal looking again. What the hell had been wrong with him?

"That was...strange." Rose said a couple of seconds later as we reached the lobby at the end of the hall.

"Very." I said, still puzzled by what had happened, myself. "Rose, can I talk to you?" I asked as I noticed her starting to leave with Lissa. Lissa shot a sympathetic look at her as Rose walked back to me. "That was Adrian Ivashkov." I said, stating the obvious.

"Yeah, I know." She said.

"This is the second time I've seen you with him."

"Yeah, we hang out sometimes."

"You hang out in his room a lot?" I asked trying not to seem jealous, but oh good God was I ever jealous.

"What happens between him and me is none of your business." She said, throwing what I had said to her about Tasha and me back in my face. Well two can play this game.

"Actually, as long as you're at the Academy, what you do is my business."

"Not in my personal life. You don't have any say in that." I wish I could have a say in her personal life...

"You're not an adult yet." I told her.

"I'm close enough. Besides, it's not like I'll magically become an adult on my eighteenth birthday."

"Clearly." I said, regretting that one single word the moment it left my lips, but I couldn't take it back now, just like I can't take any of the other things I wish I hadn't said to her back.

She blushed. "That's not what I meant. I meant—"

"I know what you meant and the technicalities don't matter right now. You're an Academy student. I'm your instructor. It's my job to keep you safe. Being in the bedroom of someone like _him_...well, that's not safe." Why couldn't she just understand that all I want is to protect her for as long as I can.

"I can handle Adrian Ivashkov." She muttered. "He's weird—really weird, apparently—but harmless." I wasn't so sure about that harmless part. "Speaking of personal lives...I suppose you were off visiting Tasha, huh?" She asked. I couldn't wait to see the reply my answer to this would get.

"Actually, I was visiting your mother." I told her.

"You gonna hook up with her too?" She asked in a very sarcastic voice.

"No, we were looking over some new data about the Strigoi in the Drozdov attack." I said pretty much completely ignoring her previous comment. This also seemed to sober her up and she became serious finally.

"What'd you find out?" She asked in a small, quiet voice.

"We managed to track some of the Strigoi. Or at least the humans with them. There were witnesses who lived nearby who spotted a few of the cars the group used. The plates were all from different states—the group appears to have split up, probably to make it harder for us. But one of the witnesses did catch one plate number. It's registered to an address in Spokane." I told her.

"Spokane? Spokane,_ Washington_? Who makes Spokane their hideout?" She asked incredulously.

"Strigoi, apparently. The address was fake, but other evidence shows they really are there. There's a kind of shopping plaza that has some underground tunnels. There've been Strigoi sightings around that area."

"Then..are you going to go after them? Is somebody going to? I mean, this is what Tasha's been saying all along...if we know where they are..." She didn't finish, but I knew what she was getting at.

"The guardians can't do anything without permission from higher up." I said, shaking my head. "That's not going to happen anytime soon."

"Because the Moroi talk too much." She said with a sigh.

"They're being cautious." I said.

I could tell she was starting to get angry again. "Come _on_. Even you can't want to be careful on this one. You actually know where Strigoi are hiding out. Strigoi who massacred children. Don't you want to do after them when they don't expect it?"

"It's not that easy." I told her. "We answer to the Guardian Council and the Moroi government. We can't just run off and act on impulse. And anyway, we don't know everything yet. You should never walk into any situation without knowing all the details."

"Zen like lessons again." She said. "Why'd you tell me this, anyway? This is guardian stuff. Not the kind of thing you let a novice in on."

I felt my expression soften a little as I said my next words. "I've said a few things...the other day and today...that I shouldn't have. Things that insulted your age. You're seventeen...but you're able of handling things those much older than you do." I told her, being one hundred percent honest with her.

"Really?" She said, almost sounding like she doubted I was telling her the truth.

I nodded. "You're still really young in a lot of ways—and act young—but the only way to really change that is to treat you like an adult. I need to do that more. I know you'll take this information and understand how important it is and keep it to yourself.

"Dimka." I heard Tasha's voice come up behind us. "Hello, Rose." She said as she stopped beside me.

"Hey." Rose said flatly, obviously back in a bad mood.

"You've got that look." Tasha said, placing her hand on my arm. I noticed Rose send a glare at that hand.

"What look?" I asked her with a smile.

"That look that says you're going to be on duty all day."

"Really? I have a look like that?" I asked.

"When does your shift technically end?" She asked, nodding in response to my previous question.

"An hour ago." I said.

"You can't keep doing this. You need a break." She groaned.

"Well... if you consider I'm always Lissa's guardian..."

"For now," She said with a knowing smile. "There's a pool tournament going on upstairs."

"I can't. Even though I haven't played in a long time.."

"Come on then, just one round. We could take them all." Tasha begged a little bit.

"I can't. Not with everything going on." I said and Tasha seemed to sober up a little bit.

"No I supposed not." She said, then looked over at Rose. "I hope you realize what a hard-core mentor you have here. He's never off duty." She said to Rose."

"Well, _for now_ at least." Rose said, mocking Tasha's earlier tone. She had been glaring at Tasha our entire conversation. I can't believe she hadn't noticed. However, Tasha did have a puzzled look on her face from what Rose just said.

"We're finished here, Rose. Remember what I said." I said,dismissing her.

"Yeah, definitely." She said as she walked away. Not really sounding like she meant it.

"What is up with her lately?" Tasha asked, watching Rose walk down the hall.

"I really don't know." I lied. I knew exactly what was up with her. She was mad about me and Tasha. I couldn't blame her, I'm mad and jealous of her being with Adrian so much lately.

"Maybe she's PMSing." God I really wish she hadn't just said that to me. "Well, anyways, I'm going to go up to the pool tournament. Are you sure you don't want to come?" She asked, looking at me now.

"I'm sure. I need to be on alert right now." I told her.

"Are you really really positively one hundred percent sure?"

"Yes, Tasha."

"Okay, I guess I'll see you later then." She said, starting to leave.

"Bye."

**I hope you guys liked that. I'll probably be getting another update up sometime after Tuesday this week, because it's regents week at my school starting Tuesday and that's the only day I have to go in so yay! Well you know what to do...REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!;-]**


	17. Chapter 17

**Update! Lol well I had actually meant to do this yesterday...but then I fell asleep haha. I have awful insomnia. Anyways here ya go. You know what to do...REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!**

After saying goodbye to Tasha I went back to my room, ate, took a shower and slept for a little while. I had to guard at Priscilla Voda's dinner later on.

I was surprised to see Rose come into the dinner with Lissa, I figured Lissa would have brought Christian, but okay. Rose looked gorgeous, she was wearing the dress that Tasha had given her for Christmas and it fit her perfectly.

Soon after everyone arrived Priscilla welcomed everyone and then they started eating. I didn't understand how people could eat what they did. I really don't think that pancreas is for digesting, at least when it comes to my digestive system it sure as hell isn't.

After they finished eating they all started walking around and talking and more pancreas and wine came out. Well I guess you'd have to be drinking to get yourself to eat that food huh? I saw Rose start talking to Adrian, which I wasn't to excited about. Especially when he gave her a glass of wine, she didn't need to be drinking especially with all of these people around one of which being her mother who by the way is marching towards Rose right now. And now she's dragging her out of the room. After a few minutes I decided to walk over to the door and see if I could here anything.

"...I'm not having sex with him or anyone else." Well that made me feel better. Adrian hadn't gotten his way with her. "And even if I were, I know about birth control. Why are you talking to me like I'm a child?" Rose asked.

"Because you act like one." Janine retorted. Rose had heard those words a few too many times the last few days.

"So you're going to send me to my room now?" I could tell by Rose's tone that she was glaring right now.

"No, Rose. You don't have to go to your room, but don't go back in there, either. Hopefully you didn't draw too much attention."

"You make it sound like I was giving a lap dance in there. I just had dinner with Lissa."

"You'd be surprised what things can spark rumors. Especially with Adrian Ivashkov." After that there was silence for a few minutes and then I heard Rose mutter, "Thanks mom." Then heard her heals click as she walked away. I waited a few seconds and then opened the door and saw her heading towards a staircase leading outside. I waited another minute or two and then followed her.

The door creaked when I opened it and Rose looked back at me, startled. She was sitting down on...I don't even know what, there was too much snow to tell. I walked over to her and put my coat over her shoulders and sat next to her.

"You must be freezing." I said.

"The sun's out." Rose said absently.

"It is. But we're still on a mountain in the middle of winter." And trust me, the sun did NOT make a difference.

Rose didn't say anything back after that. We were just silent for a little while. It was nice though, to just be sitting by her for the moment. We hadn't gotten to be alone together in a while and when we had been it was always tense and one or both of us had either been angry or annoyed at the other.

"My life is a disaster." She said all of a sudden, breaking me out of my thoughts.

"It's not a disaster." I said instantly.

"Did you follow me from the party." She asked then.

"Yes." I said simply.

"I didn't even know you were there... So you saw the illustrious Janine cause a commotion by dragging me out."

"It wasn't a commotion. Hardly anyone noticed. I saw because I was watching you." I told her honestly.

"That's not what she said. I might as well have been working a corned as far as she was concerned. Apparently I'm going to get pregnant with Adrian's kid, oh and I still act like one myself. Which I've already heard enough lately. She's so ridiculous." She finshed.

"She's just worried about you."

"She overreacted."

"Sometimes mothers are overprotective." I told her.

"Yeah, but this is _my_ mother. And she didn't really seem that protective, really. I think she was more embarrassed that I would embarrass her or something. And all the becoming-a-mother-too-young stuff was stupid. I'm not going to do anything like that." She said, but I already knew that.

"Maybe she wasn't talking about you." Rose's jaw dropped at that. I could see the thoughts running through her eyes.

"We aren't fighting right now." Rose blurted out after some more silence.

"Do you want to fight?" I asked, giving her a wary look.

"No. I hate fighting with you. Verbally, I mean. I don't mind in the gym." That made me smile a little bit.

"I don't like fighting with you either." I told her. I hated fighting with her actually.

"You should take it." She said, I flinched.

"What?"

"Tasha's offer. You should take her up on it. It's a really great chance."

Holy fucking shit. Did that seriously just come out of Rose Hathaway's mouth? I wasn't sure that she would ever be able to be that selfless especially considering how obvious she's been making it that she doesn't want me anywhere near Tasha.

"I never expected to hear you say anything like that. Especially after..."

"What a bitch I've been?" She finished for me although that wasn't quite what I was going to say. "Yeah. Well. Like I said, I don't want to fight anymore. I don't want us to hate each other. And...well..." She squeezed her eyes shut. "No matter how I feel about _us..._I want you to be happy."

This girl really does love me, doesn't she?

"Roza." I said, pulling her into a hug.

I definitely could not go off with Tasha. No matter how much I try, or Tasha tries...it won't work. I won't be able to give her what she needs. Not when I love Rose like this. It's just not going to happen. I would always be thinking about Rose, dreaming about Rose. Tasha wouldn't be able to make me forget her even the slightest bit...ever. And Rose needed me right now. She and Lissa have been going through so much lately. I couldn't leave her to deal with so much on her own.

She pulled away from and stood up then.

"Where are you going?" I asked. Wanting to keep her in my arms like that forever.

"To break someone's heart." She said, handing me my coat and heading towards the door. I stayed out on the roof for a while longer. Thinking.

I wasn't sure how any of this would work out or if it ever could, but I would stay at the Academy, with Rose, training her. And then we would be Lissa's guardians together. I guess I'll need to go talk to Tasha then.

So that's what I did. The dinner was over by now so I just went up to her room figuring she'd be there now. And she was.

"Dimka, always good to see you. What's up?" She asked when she opened the door.

"I need to talk to you."

"About..." She said. Obviously anticipating that it would be about me being her guardian. What she didn't anticipate was there being an 'I can't' starting off that sentence.

"About me being your guardian..."

"Yes!"

"I can't." I said simply just getting it out there.

"Oh." She said with a frown. "Rose...?"

"Yeah. I just can't leave her Tasha. Or Lissa, they're both going through a lot right now." I told her.

"I know. I understand. I'm guessing it doesn't help that you also happen to be in love with one of them. My question is though, do you think you and Rose would ever be able to work out?"

"I honestly have no clue. It's just so complicated. You know you Moroi sure do have it pretty damn easy." I said, the last part jokingly.

"Well I guess when it comes to some things, we do have it easier than you guys." She smiled.

"So you're not mad, upset?"

"No I'm not mad. I am a little upset though. I really wanted you as my guardian, man." She laughed. "But I completely get it. Don't worry."

"Okay, well I've got to go, but I'll see you later."

"Okay. Bye, Dimka."

"Bye, Tasha." I said, feeling relieved.

As soon as I rounded the corner I pretty much ran into Lissa.

"Oh my God, Dimitri. I need help." She said frantically. Almost in hysterics.

"What's wrong, Lissa?" I asked, extremely worried.

"I can't find Rose anywhere. And Mason, Eddie and Mia are all gone too. I asked all of there roommates and none of them have seen them in a few hours."

"Do you or any of them have any idea where they might have gone?"

"No. I have no clue. They have no clue. I'm really worried."

"I know, I know. Does Christian know anything?"

"I don't know, I didn't think to ask him." She said, still frantic.

"Okay, well let's go find him and we'll see what he knows. Then we'll go get some more guardians. And hopefully he'll give us something that we can work with." I told her calmly. Hoping she'd calm down some.

"Okay, thank you so much."

**Okay, I know it's not the longest chapter ever, but I think there will probably only be two chapters, maybe three left before I start Shadow Kiss. Anyways I hope you liked this. I loved writing Dimitri's sweet thoughts about Rose on the roof :) You know what to do...REVIEW REVIEW. Oh and I only need 9 more reviews to get to 100 on this story. Hint Hint lol. Oh btw I've recently become obsessed with the idea of Andrew Garfield playing Adrian. If any of you have seen The Social Network (aka the movie that is tied with The Notebook as the best movie ever haha) he played Eduardo in it. And if you haven't seen The Social Network then go get it and watch it as soon as possible, but in the meantime go google Andrew Garfield and check out some pics of him and tell me if you agree that he would be the perfect Adrian. In my mind he is haha. Well REVIEWS are nice ;-]**


	18. Chapter 18

**Update! Reviews are nice ;-]**

Turns out, Christ went with Rose and everyone else. Luckily there was a guard who was on duty who said he saw them leaving...and that Rose just might have hit him in the head with something and knocked him out. Yeah...

So after he gave us all the information he could we left to search for them. I figured a good place to go would be the bus station, considering Rose seemed kind of mad when she left after I told her about the Strigoi in Spokane. I couldn't believe that she would put two herself and two other novices in danger let alone two Moroi. My hunch ended up being right though. The person working at the station said she recognized our pictures of Rose and Christian, but not Mason, Eddie and Mia. That was okay though considering Rose was probably going after the others. Well off to Spokane it is.

"So, let's find that mall." Wes said when we got to Spokane.

"Come on, it's this way." Said a female guardian named Gabrielle. "I've been here before, I know where it is."

"Okay, lead the way Gabrielle." Janine said.

When we got to the mall we found underground tunnels with obvious signs that Strigoi there, but there was no evidence of Rose and the others. I mean I knew she had been there because of what I told her, but there was no clue as to where they went next. There were multiple tunnels so we split up into groups to search them. I had to go with Wes.

"You'd think you would have taught your student better. I can't believe she'd run off with Moroi again and this time she was running towards fucking Strigoi." Wes said after we had been walking for a few minutes.

"I'm sure she had good reasons and it seems like she was chasing them after they left considering the woman at the bus station only recognized her and Christian which means that the rest of them would have been through there earlier. The only mistake she made was in telling them and allowing them to know where the Strigoi are hiding." I said calmly. Inside I was picturing my fist connecting with his nose and a nice crunching noise after words.

"Whatever, she still made a mistake either way."

"Whatever, let's go back there's no one down here." I said.

"Yeah, let's go." Wes agreed.

The other groups were starting to come back too so after that we went back up the mall. And let me just say we are the luckiest people ever. As we were leaving the mall we saw Christian, Mia and a very messed up Eddie. Christian saw us and they all came over.

"What happened to Eddie." Janine asked.

"Strigoi captured us." Christian said a little out of breathe. "They drank from Eddie."

I didn't want to ask the follow up question. Thank God Janine was brave enough to do it.

"Where are Rose and Mason, Christian." I could see the worried look in her eyes and I'm sure mine mirrored them.

"When we were trying to escape, two of the Strigoi came back, we got out, but only because Rose and Mason fought them off." Christian said after a long pause and I could tell by the expression on his face that there was more, but he couldn't say it out loud.

"Christian, there's something else. Tell us." I said, scared something happened to Rose. The fact that something could have happened to Mason was in my head too, but the thought that it was Rose was much more unbearable.

"The Strigoi killed Mason." Mia finally said after what seemed like hours of no one speaking. I know this is terrible, but the sense of relief that flowed through me when she said Mason and not Rose was immense. I was of course sad that someone so young died, but that it wasn't Rose made me happy at the same time.

"What about Rose? I she okay?" I asked.

"Physically, she was when I left." Mia again answered.

"Okay. Wes, Gabrielle take Eddie back to the airport and get some food and liquids in him, make sure he doesn't draw attention though. Tom, you go with them too." Janine said. "Dimitri, Alberta, Jordan, Stan and Allison, you guys are coming with me. Mia, Christian, you're going to have to take us to the house."

**Short update, I know sorry but it's all I can do right now and I wanted to get something up for you. I hope you liked it anyway. I was going to write the part at the house when they find Rose and Mason, but I want to be able to take my time with that and really make it so that Dimitri has some intense emotions about what Rose is going through and I won't be able to do that in the time I have right now, so it will be the beginning of the next chapter. Well, you know what to do...REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW! ;-]**


	19. Chapter 19

**Sorry for the delayed update! It's been hectic. Anyways, reviews are nice ;-]**

When we got to the house, the living room was right off to the side as we walking in the door and it was a mess. Shattered, glass, water and oh was there blood. But none of the mattered the moment I saw Rose. Mia was right, she was physically fine, but the look on her face when she looked up to see who had come in tortured me. She looked so pained and broken and angry. How can someone so young move on from something like this? Sure this will happen when she's a guardian, but it didn't have to happen to her now! This is supposed to be the easy time in her life, not the time when something like this happens. I wanted to bring back those Strigoi just so I could kill them again and make them wish they had never taken her and the rest of them. I wanted to kill myself for telling her about the Strigoi out here and giving her the information that she need to get into this situation. Good, God that look on her face was really killing me. I had never seen a look that tortured on someone before and I sure as hell didn't want to see it on Rose. I'll do whatever it takes to make sure her gorgeous face never has that look on it ever again. I just wanted to go hold her and never let her go so that nothing could ever hurt her again.

"Stay back, stay away from him." Rose warned after we entered the room, leaping up from Mason grabbing the sword she must have used to kill those Strigoi. Oh, Roza...

We kept moving toward her anyways.

"Stay back!" She said trying to sound more forceful, but instead she sounded frantic. I'd do anything to trade positions with her right now.

"Rose, drop the sword." I said gently, the only one still walking towards her now.

"Get away from us." She said, her hands shaking.

"It's okay." I told her. "Everything's going to be okay. You can let go of the sword." This seemed to actually get through to her, but she still wouldn't really listen.

"I can't. I can't leave him alone. I have to protect him." She said, still sounding frantic.

"You have."

This time she did drop the sword and she followed, collapsing to the floor. I immediately wrapped my arms around her and helped her up. I took her outside immediately and her mom, Mia, Christian and I took one of the cars took to the airport. She looked like she'd never get over this. I honestly don't see how she will with how she is right now...and that kills me. What really kills me though is that if I hadn't told her, she wouldn't have had any reason to come out here and get caught. I know I had told her not to tell anyone else and she told Mason which she shouldn't have done, but I just can't help it. I feel guilty. I feel like there are so many things I could have done differently and if I had done them differently she would have ended up here either. She did though and now I have absolutely no idea what to do about it. I want to help her, but I don't know how. I want to talk to her, but not with everyone else around or with her in such an unstable condition.

We're at the airport now, the Academy sent one of their private planes out here to get us. We took Rose, Mia and Christian out to the plane so they could stay there until we left. I wanted to talk to Rose, but like I said before, it needed to be in private. I saw Mia sit next to her as I got off the plane. I knew her mom would be talking to her soon too.

After we finished cleaning up the house and called some alchemists to get rid of the bodies we got on the plane and went back to the Academy. We got back in the middle of the day so everyone knew what was happened and just stared. Rose really did not need that, I don't really think she noticed though and if she did she didn't show that she did. Her mom took her up to her dorm while I went to get her some food. After that I went to bed, or well I tried to. I couldn't get the look on Rose's face when we went into that house out of my head. I wonder how long that look will haunt me. I wish we would all wake up tomorrow back at the ski lodge and realize that this was all just a horrible dream. That Rose hadn't just gone through seeing her friend get killed right in front of her eyes and not being able to do anything about it. That she hadn't had to kill his killers right after that. I can only imagine what it must be like to be as young as her and going through that. I wanted to just wrap her up in my arms and hold her and tell everything would be fine, that she would be able to get past this. That I'll always be there for her, help her when she needs me and that I'll never leave her no matter what. But I can't, I can't make those decisions. I can for the next few months, but after that, we'll both be protecting Lissa. Sometimes our lives really just aren't fair.

The next few days went by pretty slow. At least they did to me. Rose seemed to get better though, but I knew her. I knew it was just a show, she won't let anyone see her weak, but I know her. She's still broken up inside.

Today is her_ molnija _ceremony. She's getting two, her first two at the same time at seventeen years old. She's going to be an amazing guardian, but I already knew that. I didn't need to see her get the tattoos at such a young age just to know that. At least I know that she'll be okay though. Although I can tell she's nowhere near over any of this, but I can now see that eventually she will be. She's so strong.

I saw Tasha later that day. I hadn't seen her since we were still at the ski lodge.

"Hey, Dimka." She said coming up to me on one of the sidewalks.

"Hello, Tasha. How's Christian?" I asked. I'd seen him around school in the last few days, but that was it.

"He's doing okay. He's still a bit shaken, but what else can you expect when someone is captured by Strigoi? I guess they knew his parents too. He said that there was a male one there and he was talking about them." She said.

"Oh wow. Well at least he's doing okay though." I said.

"How's Rose doing? Have you seen her since you got back?" She asked me.

"Only at the molnija ceremony, but she seems to be getting better. She's still so upset obviously, but she'll get past it eventually. It's got to be hard though. Not just for her either, but for all of them." I said.

"Yeah, I'm sure it's hardest for her though. She had to watch such a close friend of hers get killed and then kill the Strigoi who killed him."

"Yeah, she's strong though."

"She is. Well, I've got to go. I'm going back home so I've got to go get my suitcases and get to the airport. So I'll see you the next time I visit Christian. Bye, Dimka."

"Bye, Tasha." I said, she hugged me and went off to her room. I went to the cafeteria for lunch.

The next day I went down to the gym to wait for Rose to get there. I knew that she would be there, Dr. Olendski told her that she was healthy enough to start doing all of her training again, but she wasn't going to be training with me today. I wanted to take this chance to finally talk to her. She came in from the locker room about five minutes after I got into the gym.

"I thought you might come by." I said, looking up at her from the book I had been reading while I waited.

"It's time for practice."

"No. No practice today. You still need to recover." I told her, and looking at her, although I could tell she was ready physically, looking in her eyes I could tell she wasn't ready emotionally or mentally.

"I've got a clean bill of health. I'm good to go." She said, but I wasn't convinced.

"Sit down, Rose." I said, gesturing towards the chair next to me.

She hesitated for a minute, but then she sat down. I moved my chair so that I was sitting right across from her and could look her in the eyes.

"No one gets over their first kill...kills...easily. Even with Strigoi...well it's still technically taking a life. That's hard to come to terms with. And after everything else you went through..." I sighed, unable to get what I wanted to say out. So I grabbed her hand and restarted. "When I saw your face...when we found you in that house...you can't imagine how I felt." I finished. Still not getting out everything that I wanted to tell her. I couldn't tell her everything I wanted to.

She swallowed. "How..how did you feel?" She asked me.

"Devastated...grief-stricken." I told her, "You were alive, but the way you looked...i didn't think you'd ever recover. And it tore me apart to think of that happening to you so young. You will recover," I said squeezing her hand, "I know that now, and I'm glad, but you aren't there. Not yet. Losing someone you care about is never easy."

"It's my fault." She whispered, looking away from me.

"Hmm?"

"Mason. Getting killed."

"Oh Roza. No," I said, how could she think that? Of course I had felt guilty and thought of the many different things I had done that had out her out there in Spokane, but this wasn't her fault. "You made some bad decisions...you should have told others when you knew he was gone...but you can't blame yourself. You didn't kill him."

"I might as well have." She said, tears starting to build up in her eyes. Seeing her like this killed me. "The whole reason he went there...it was my fault. We had a fight...and I told him about that Spokane thing, even though you asked me not to..." A tear started to roll down her face as she finished, that I gently wiped away.

"You can't blame yourself for that. You can regret your decisions and wish you had done things differently, but in the end, Mason made his decisions too. That was what he chose to do. It was his decision in the end, no matter your original role." I had told myself the same thing about her quite a few times in the past couple of days.

"I just wish I'd been able to...I don't know, do anything..." She said.

I could see more tears building up in her eyes as she pulled her hands out of mine and stood up from her chair.

"I should go," She said with a think voice. "Let me know when you want to start practice again. And thanks for...talking." She said as she turned around to leave.

"No." I told her abruptly, before she could leave.

"What?" She asked, looking back at me.

"No." I told her again. "I told her no. Tasha."

"I..." She stopped for a second. I could see the shock on her face. "But...why? That was a once-in-a-lifetime thing. You could have had a baby. And she... she was, you know, into you..." I smiled a little at that.

"Yes she was. Is. And that's why I had to say no. I couldn't return that...couldn't give her what she wanted. Not when...not when my heart is somewhere else." I said, taking a couple of steps towards her.

"But you seemed so into her. And you kept going on about how young I acted."

"You act young, because you are young. But you know things, Roza. Things people older than you don't even know. That day... You were right, about how I fight to stay in control. No one else has ever figured that out, and it scared me. You scare me."

"Why? Don't you want anyone to know?" She asked, still trying to make sense of what she was hearing.

I shrugged. "Whether they know that fact or not doesn't matter. What matter is that someone—that you—know me that well. When a person can see into your soul, it's hard. It forces you to be open. Vulnerable. It's much easier being with someone who's just more of a casual friend."

"Like Tasha."

"Tasha Ozera is an amazing woman. She's beautiful and she's brave. But she doesn't..."

"She doesn't _get_ you." She finished for me. I nodded.

"I knew that. But I still wanted that relationship to work. I knew it would be easy and that she could take me away from you. I thought she could make me forget you." I told her honestly.

"But she couldn't." Rose told me, she was right.

"Yes. And so...that's a problem."

"Because it's wrong for us to be together."

"Yes."

"Because of the age difference."

"Yes."

"But more importantly because we're going to be Lissa's guardians and need to focus on her...not each other."

"Yes." I said again.

She thought about this for a minute. Then she looked back at me, straight in the eyes with a look in her eyes that I can't even describe. "Well...the way I see it, we aren't Lissa's guardians _yet_."

I looked at her for a split second. I could tell by the look on her face that she thought I was going to give her a 'life lesson', but I didn't. Instead I took the last few steps towards her, took my face between her hands and kissed her. This kiss was so much nicer than the last one we had shared. This one was sweet compared to the anger in the last kiss we shared in this gym. I pulled back a few seconds later and kissed her forehead, leaving my lips there for a moment after wards. Then I stepped away from her toward the door.

"I'll see you later, Roza." I said, smiling a little again.

"At our next practice?" She asked me. "We _are_ starting those up again, right? I mean, you still have things to teach me." She said and I smiled once again.

"Yes, lot's of things." I agreed and then went out through the door.

**Okay, so I'm just wondering...did any of you think that there was a double meaning to Dimitri's last line when you first read Frost Bite? Cause, I took it as an innuendo and I still do lol. Okay well, there I've finished my second Dimitri story, I hope you all liked it :) Well I'll get the first chapter of Shadow Kiss up asap and I'll post an AN on here when it's up. I'm not sure when I will be getting it up because I'm really busy lately. There's a new baby in my house...my brother's girlfriend had their baby on February 23rd and I'm also gone Monday through Friday from 6:45 in the morning to 5:00 at night so that takes up time that I would have used for writing when I came home right after school on most days. But I will post it as quickly as I can. Well you know what to do...REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW! ;-]**


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